The Clicking of Cuthbert (Wodehouse, P. G. Collector's Wodehouse,) (Hardcover)

Be sure to read the book's foreword in which P.G. Wodehouse describes how he was taken by golf.

As the Clicking of Cuthbert opens, a young man is about to give away his clubs and quit golf. The Oldest Member relates to the young man The Clicking of Cuthbert in which an earnest young golfer in love finds the way to his beloved's heart through a most circuitous detour through the drawing room to discuss literature.

A Woman Is Only a Woman explores how falling for the wrong woman (one who doesn't care for golf) can blight life and friendship.

A Mixed Threesome shows how the judicious man is careful to whom he introduces his fiancée . . . while looking at the pleasures of golf compared to the pleasures of marriage. It's very funny.

In Sundered Hearts, a misunderstanding about golf leads to a marriage and a marital mishap.

In The Salvation of George Mackintosh, Wodehouse looks at the awful pest . . . the non-stop-talking golfer.

In Ordeal by Golf, that old tradition of doing business on the course takes a predictable turn as two men fight it out for advancement by playing with the boss.

The Long Hole looks at both the potential for cross-country golf to be an adventure and the trickiness of the rules.

The Heel of Achilles looks at the role of confidence in building up the golfer.

The Rough Stuff returns to an old theme of Wodehouse's, the need to let your emotions go to make contact with the heart of the one you love.

The Coming of Gowf is a writer's fantasy about creating a fanciful golf story. Anyone who has ever struggled with an editor will be laughing for days.

Fore!!

Rather than a straightforward novel, the book is a collection of ten short stories. With the exception of the tenth, each story is 'told' by the club's Oldest Member. There is a common theme throughout the stories the Oldest Member tells - how golf is vital to success in every aspect of life. The last story, however, is my favourite one in the book. It's a historical tale, telling of the coming of a strange new religion called Gowf to the country of Oom.

I think that this book would appeal more to the golfing community than to the uninitiated. There are certain terms and phrases specific to the game, which mightn't make much sense to a non-golfer and could possibly break the flow of the story a little. Furthermore, some of the terminology associated with the game has changed since the book was written. Clubs are referred to in the book as baffies, niblicks and mashies while, at the time Wodehouse wrote the book, the word bogey meant par. On the other hand, it's still a book written by P.G. Wodehouse - he does have a very distinctive style of writing and certainly appears to have a hugely loyal fanbase. If you've read other books by him and enjoyed them, odds are you'll enjoy this, regardless of your expertise on the golf course. If you haven't read any Wodehouse before, I'd probably suggest starting with a Blandings or a Jeeves novel.