Piccadilly Jim (Penguin Books) (original 1917; edition 1995)

The man can do no wrong - another corker!
This is a story of farcical mix ups between an American and English extended family, when the antics of James Crocker (the eponymous Piccadilly Jim) in London upsets his step-mother when his antics may cost his American father an English Lordship.
James Crocker shamed by his behaviour therefore takes ship for New York, meets the girl of his dreams on the ship, who he had upset five years earlier writing a biting review of her book of adolescent verse. She does not recognise him, so he pretends to be the son of his parent's butler (Bayliss - a precursor of Beach in the Blanding novels), but then is asked to pretend to be James Crocker (yes, himself!) in order to gain access to his aunt and uncle's house (they have never met him) to kidnap the extremely badly behaved son of his aunt, who is making his step-father's life a misery.
Of course, it is more complicated than the above even begins to convey and yet it is written with such ease, when you are reading it it all makes perfect sense and it is so funny.
Although not in one of the series for which he is better known, this is an excellent stand-alone Wodehouse. ( )

I love Wodehouse, but am used to his Jeeves & Wooster books, which are, essentially, a string of short stories. Piccadilly Jim is a single, coherent plot, told with the usual Wodehouse brilliance. Any description of the plot would undoubtedly be a 'spoiler'. Suffice it to say that it is shot through with deception, counter-deception and mistaken identity. Towards the end I scarcely dared to turn the page to the next Chapter in fear of the next excruciating twist and turn. Wooster is, in the end, always put upon by others. Piccadilly Jim manages to make his own trouble. Look out for the wonderfully written Miss Trimble, Housemaid and Private Detective, as well Skinner the butler! ( )

This book has all the ingredients of a Wodehouse novel, a wayward nephew, a beautiful niece, head strong aunts, meek uncles, a crazy scientist and a fierce female detective. But somehow it lacks the humorous punch that make a good comic novel.

All and all a disappointment. ( )

Top daft daftness. Farce at its best. At one point this chap is actually pretending to be himself. No sign of Jeeves or Wooster so rather disorientating until you stop worrying about it and enjoy the tale. ( )

Now I have to come clean ... I am a big PG Wodehouse fan, as well as his books I also own several audiobooks of his stories or the BBC dramatisation of his stories. And Piccadilly Jim does not disappoint, it's full of the typical 'wodehouse' characters set in the typical 'wodehouse' plot ... which is to say literally anything can (and will!) happen. Kidnapping plots, people assuming false names and identities (in one case one fellow pretending to be someone else pretending to be himself .... picture The Life of Brian with men dressed as women pretending to be men ...), put-upon husbands, pretentious poets, phoney inventors, thiefs and the usual smattering of butlers - some even are who they claim to be.
If all you know about PG Wodehouse is that Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie once played Jeeves and Wooster I urge you to read some of his other books, and this one would not be a bad place to start. ( )