Quiz - PG Wodehouse

1. In Greek mythology, Zeus transformed (or, in some versions, sent) an eagle to kidnap this shepherd from the slopes of Mount Ida to make him his cupbearer. Name him, and what is he doing in a Wodehouse quiz?
   
   
2. This is an extract from “Performing Flea”.
   “I am re-reading ________. I never get tired of his stories. I can always let them cool off for a month or two and then come back to them. He is the only writer I know who opens up an entirely new world to me. What a mass of perfectly wonderful stuff he has done. (All this is probably wasted on you, as I don’t suppose you have read him, unless you were attracted to his stories by the fact that they used to be illustrated by S. H. Sime (Sidney Herbert Sime). He has exactly the same eerie imagination as Sime.”
   Fill in the blank (Or two blanks). 
3. It’s common knowledge that Wodehouse modeled Psmith on Rupert D’Oyly Carte. But Psmith wasn’t the only one modeled on a real-life person. George Bevan, the hero of A Damsel in Distress was modeled on a very successful American friend of Wodehouse. Who was Bevan modeled after?
4. Connect to Plum.
   
   
5. One of Wodehouse’s more atypical school stories was a boy’s adventure tale, involving Indian politics, a stolen jewel, and schoolboy heroes. Called The Luck Stone, it was published in Chums magazine in 1908-9, and is similar in tone to Frank Richards’ Billy Bunter stories that appeared in the Magnet magazine, also popular at the time. What was the pseudonym Wodehouse used for the story?
6. Wodehouse was always dismissive about magazine editors, but there was one editor he had the utmost respect for. He quoted “No writer was bigger than the ____. If one chose to leave, there were always others to succeed him. Nor could he give any less than his best for the Post , because _______ would not hesitate to turn down the work of the highest-paid writers if he thought it fell below standard. He read every contribution as though it were the first piece the writer had submitted.”  and wrote “That’s absolutely true. Mary Roberts Rinehart in her My Story says: “ I once saw him turn down some stories by Rudyard Kipling, with the brief comment ‘Not good enough’. The Boss was an autocrat, all right, but my God, what an editor to work for. He kept you up on your toes. I had twenty-one serials in the ____, but I never felt safe till I got the cable saying each had got over with _______. Fill in the blanks.
7. OK. This is going to be impossible unless you’ve read one obscure Mulliner story, but I’m bunging it in because its one of my favourites. Connect the two images - the first is an image of Charlemagne’s sword, the other is the heartsease flower, also known by another name.
   
   
   

8.                              Stephen Raw and Annet Stirling were in the news in September 2019 for which Wodehouse related reason?

9.                                      Which recurring - and unpleasant - Wodehouse character made his first appearance in 1924, in Bill The Conqueror, and his final one in 1964’s Frozen Assets?

10.                               Bertie Wooster was the runner up in which of the Drones Club’s sporting events? A proper sport, and no, not golf.

 

Answers

1. Ganymede. The club for valets and butlers is the Junior Ganymede
2. Lord Dunsany
3. George Gershwin
4. Mary Deane, the author of Three Little Maids, was Wodehouse’s aunt, the “scourge of his existence” and model for Aunt Agatha
5. Basil Windham
6. George Horace Lorimer of the Saturday Evening Post
7. Joyeuse (Charlemagne’s sword) and Love in Idleness (heartsease) were names given to rival mustaches in the Mulliner story Buried Treasure
8. They designed and carved the memorial tablet for Plum in Westminster Abbey
9. Percy Pilbeam
10. Squash