Mike at Wrykyn (Everyman's Library P G WODEHOUSE)

Haven't read it yet but I enjoyed Mike and Psmith so I imagine I will. Good price and arrived on time

Read this as a kid and loved it. Didn't realise it was the great PG. Re-reading it was a joy, and it's better than most Wodehouse I've read. Nice hardback, too.

very good

Very good condition; no problems.

PG Wodehouse was born in Guildford in 1881. One of the funniest writers of the 20th Century, he is probably best known for the Jeeves and Wooster books. His early novels were largely school stories; "Mike at Wyrkyn" would belong to that set. The story was first published in a magazine called "The Captain" in 1909 and was republished in book form in 1953. It and its sequel, "Mike and Psmith", have also been published in a single volume, simply called "Mike."The book opens during the Easter holidays, around the breakfast table chez Jackson. Mike, our hero, is struggling to get out of bed and is therefore the last to hear the good news. A letter has arrived from Mr Wain, a house master at Wrykyn, saying there will be a place for Mike this coming term. The family are delighted - well, everyone apart from Bob. (Bob is one of Mike's older brothers. He'll be leaving Wrykyn at the end of the year and had rather enjoyed not having a younger sibling around the school).Attending Wrykyn has something of a family tradition. So, too, is playing for the school's cricket team - and of all the family's members, Mike himself is seen as the best prospect. He aims to make the first team as quickly as possible. Bob, his brother, fancies his own chances a litle better. It's almost inevitable there's be a little friction between the two brothers over the course of the term, Bob will not be the greatest of Mike's worries. That'll be the Gazeka, a friend of Bob's, more properly known as Firby-Smith. The Gazeka is the overly-fussy Head of Wain's House who, awkwardly, Bob has asked him to keep a close eye on Mike. At least he has one ally though - his room-mate Wyatt, the stepson of Wain, who is reasonably selctive about which of the school's rues he follows.An easy, enjoyable read. I read a lot of Wodehouse in my teenage years, but I'm not sure I ever read this one. (It's been a few years but I remember reading "The Gold Bat," which is also set at Wrykyn. I enjoyed this one more than I remember enjoying that one). Life at Wrykyn seems to revolve around tea and cricket, with little mention of actual lessons. I'll be moving straight to "Mike and Psmith" to see how things work out.

`Mike at Wrykyn' is the most satisfying of all P G Wodehouse's school stories, this is in part due to some of the action being away from the boarding school setting at Mike Jackson's home during the holidays. This gives him and the story sisters, brothers and parents making the central schoolboy appear flesh and blood rather than an Edwardian cliché.The standard is also raised by the presence of Wyatt, Mike's inseparable school chum, although not a perfect character piece like Psmith whom was to eclipse him in later Mike books, Wyatt takes some edges off Wodehouse's perfectly square schoolboy template. Wyatt provides the entertainment whist his straight man, Mike, carries the story.The story is fairly tame now but a young cricketer going for his colours as a first team cricket batsman in his first school term would have been considered quite an achievement to the early twentieth century school boys who read this book with a torch under the covers after lights out in an English boarding school dormitory.The book is still very much in the vein of all of Wodehouse's school stories but does point to the character developments he was making and shows how the seeds of genius were sown.