It is a sign of P. G. Wodehouse’s enduring popularity that references to the author, his works, and his characters can be found in the media almost every day. He can also turn up unexpectedly in works by other authors. Here is a selection of recent heartwarming moments when Plum popped up in our reading.

The Substack column “Illustrating the Public Doman” recently included an illustration for “Jeeves and the Song of Songs” that was published in The Strand Magazine, September 1929. In an Afterword, the author, Jules, spoke of how he found the illustration on “a fantastically thorough database of P. G. Wodehouse’s pre-1930 writing” on which he heaped great praise. The database? Why, Madame Eulalie’s Rare Plums, of course! (“New Discoveries,” Substack, February 28, 2025)

In February, Vikram Doraiswami, the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom, was the guest speaker at a meeting of The P G Wodehouse Society (UK) at the Savile Club in London; other attendees included TWS’s president, Bill Franklin. Mr. Doraiswami spoke warmly of his appreciation for Plum’s artistry in prose, citing numerous humorous examples. “Few authors can claim to have created a world  as perfect as he did.” (Eastern Eye, March 1, 2025)

The Canadian author Mark Steyn has an online newsletter called The Mark Steyn Club. A Wodehouse fan, Steyn recently paid tribute to one of Plum’s works, The Girl on the Boat, which he covered in installments starting on March 14 and concluding on April 5. Members of Steyn’s club can log in and hear him reading the book; anybody can join the club. (Steyn Online: March 14; March 15; March 16; and so on.)

In a short piece for WSHU public radio, journalist David Bouchler pondered on the importance of humor in our lives. His thoughts were sparked by the 50th anniversary of P. G. Wodehouse’s death on February 14 this year. Says Bouchler: “Wodehouse’s subject was always human comedy—the endlessly entertaining contrast between what we pretend to be and what we are.” (“Nothing Serious,” March 24, 2025)

Congratulations to Sir Stephen Fry, who was knighted at Windsor Castle on March 25. Sir Stephen is well known to Wodehouseans for his portrayal of Jeeves in the 1990s television series Jeeves and Wooster; his longtime friend Hugh Laurie played Bertie Wooster. Sir Stephen has long been an admirer and champion of Wodehouse and is a patron of The P G Wodehouse Society (UK). For one of many reports of his knighthood, see this article in the Independent.

In an examination of “Aunts, Godmothers and Other Interfering Females,” blogger Yvonne Setters includes two of Wodehouse’s most famous characters. Representing “Good” is Aunt Dahlia; representing bad is, of course, Aunt Agatha, she who eats broken bottles and so forth. (See Libertabooks, April 6, 2025)

For fun: A recent post by “FoodieSnark” on Reddit posed a quiz in which one must guess whether certain slang terms or abbreviations were “used by modern food personalities or Bertie Wooster.” See how well you do!

Stumbling across Wodehouse in a book, whether fiction or nonfiction, is always fun isn’t it? Take, for instance, this snippet from editor Adam Sisman’s introduction to Patrick Leigh Fermor’s Dashing for the Post (2016): “‘He [Fermor] was the most English person I ever met,’ recalled Agnes ‘Magouche’ Philips, later Xan Fielding’s second wife: ‘Everything was ripping, and there was more talk of PG Wodehouse than of Horace or Gibbon.’ Indeed Paddy himself was something of a Wodehouse hero, in his boyish manner, his innocence, his gentleness, his playfulness with language, his sense of fun, and his tendency to get into scrapes, particularly when driving.”

If you find a reference to Wodehouse in a book, send it to elinwm@gmail.com.