To P. G. Wodehouse
whose books and stories have brightened my life for many years. Also to show my pleasure in his having been kind enough to tell me that he enjoys my books

Mrs. Ariadne Oliver had gone with the friend with whom she was staying, Judith Butler, to help with the preparations for a children's party which was to take place that same evening.

(Judith Butler on teenage parties:) "Peculiar drugs and -- what do they call it? -- Flower Pot or Purple Hemp or L.S.D., which I always have thought just meant money, but apparently it doesn't."
"I suppose it costs it," suggested Ariadne Oliver.