Empress of Blandings is a

fictional Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places Place may refer to: Geography * Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population ** Census-designated place, ...

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...

, featured in many of the

Blandings Castle Blandings Castle is a recurring fictional location in the stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being the seat of Lord Emsworth (Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth), home to many of his family and the setting for numerous ta ...

novels and stories by

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

. Owned by the doting

Lord Emsworth Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl Emsworth, commonly known as Lord Emsworth, is a recurring fictional character in the Blandings Castle series of stories by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. He is the amiable and somewhat absent-minded head of t ...

, the Empress is an enormous black

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

sow, who wins many prizes in the "Fat Pigs" class at the local

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

Agricultural Show, and is the subject of many plots and schemes, generally involving her kidnap for various purposes. In 2005 Hall & Woodhouse, the Dorset-based Brewers of Badger beer, named a public house in Hampshire in honour of the Empress.

Appearances

Once the pig bug has taken hold of her master, the Empress becomes a regular feature in the Blandings books, playing some part in most of the subsequent stories: * "

Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey "Pig-Hoo-o-o-o-ey" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, which first appeared in the United States in the 9 July 1927 issue of ''Liberty'', and in the United Kingdom in the August 1927 ''Strand''. Part of the Blandings Castle canon, it featur ...

" (1927, included in ''

Blandings Castle and Elsewhere ''Blandings Castle and Elsewhere'' is a collection of short stories by P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published in the United Kingdom on 12 April 1935 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and, as ''Blandings Castle'', in the United States on 20 Septembe ...

'', 1935) * ''

Summer Lightning ''Summer Lightning'' is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 1 July 1929 by Doubleday, Doran, New York, under the title ''Fish Preferred'', and in the United Kingdom on 19 July 1929 by Herbert Jenkins, London ...

'' (1929) * '' Heavy Weather'' (1933) * ''

Uncle Fred in the Springtime ''Uncle Fred in the Springtime'' is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 18 August 1939 by Doubleday, Doran, New York, and in the United Kingdom on 25 August 1939 by Herbert Jenkins, London.McIlvaine (1990), p. 7 ...

'' (1939) * ''

Full Moon The full moon is the lunar phase when the Moon appears fully illuminated from Earth's perspective. This occurs when Earth is located between the Sun and the Moon (when the ecliptic coordinate system, ecliptic longitudes of the Sun and Moon opp ...

'' (1947) * ''

Pigs Have Wings ''Pigs Have Wings'' is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, which first appeared as a serial in ''Collier's Weekly'' between 16 August and 20 September 1952. It was first published as a book in the United States on 16 October 1952 by Doubleday & Company, ...

'' (1952) * '' Service with a Smile'' (1961) * ''

Galahad at Blandings ''Galahad at Blandings'' is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 31 December 1964 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York under the title ''The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood'', and in the United Kingdom on 26 Au ...

'' (1965) * ''

A Pelican at Blandings ''A Pelican at Blandings'' is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 25 September 1969 by Barrie & Jenkins, London, and in the United States on 11 February 1970 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, under the title ...

'' (1969) * ''

Sunset at Blandings ''Sunset at Blandings'' is an unfinished novel by P. G. Wodehouse published in the United Kingdom by Chatto & Windus, London, on 17 November 1977 and in the United States by Simon & Schuster, New York, 19 September 1978.McIlvaine, E., Sherby, L ...

'' (1977)

Keepers

In the course of the Blandings saga, the Empress is tended to by a large and disparate bunch of pig-keepers, most of them rather unappealing types who, unsurprisingly, smell strongly of pig. * George Cyril Wellbeloved, her first and best-known keeper, is a rather unreliable sort, a little too fond of drink and lacking the old feudal loyalty; he defects to the rival camp of

Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, 7th Baronet (usually called Sir Gregory Parsloe) is a fictional character from the Blandings Castle short stories and novels of British author P. G. Wodehouse. In the stories, Parsloe resides at Matchingham Hall, near ...

for a time, later returning to Blandings (in '' Service with a Smile''), only to further betray Emsworth by joining yet another plot to kidnap the Empress. * Pirbright, who holds the post throughout ''

'' and '' Heavy Weather'', is a taciturn man does the job in a solid manner, and enjoys a good scrap with would-be pig-nappers. * Edwin Pott is an elderly,

gnome A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

-like man with no roof to his mouth (rendering his speech rather hard to follow), who appears in ''

''. * Monica Simmons, rather worryingly niece to Parsloe-Parsloe, is nevertheless a highly capable girl despite referring to the Empress as a "piggy-wiggy". Graduate of an Agricultural College, Amazonian Miss Simmons tends her charge well in ''

'', and returns to the post in ''

'', only to elope at the end with a nephew of Lord Emsworth. * Cuthbert Price, who takes over from Simmons, for ''

''.

Adventures

", wherein we first meet the noble beast, tells of how she misses her first keeper, Wellbeloved, when he is sent to jail for a spell; her pining is worrisome to her master, with the big show approaching, until she is pepped up by James Belford's

hog-calling Hog calling, or pig calling, is the art of making a call to encourage pigs to approach the caller. Competitions in hog calling are held. Calls To attract pigs (or family), the calls are based on four strategies: a male call to encourage terri ...

techniques, returning to her trough with enough gusto to take her first Silver Medal. Soon afterwards, to Emsworth's disgust, Wellbeloved defects to

, whose own animal the Pride of Matchingham is the Empress' biggest rival. In the novels ''

'' and '' Heavy Weather'', while she is under the care of Pirbright, she becomes the subject of various schemes: first stolen by Ronnie Fish (who has upset his uncle by bouncing a tennis ball on her back and hopes to get back into his good books by "finding" her again), she is stashed in a gamekeeper's cottage in the woods, and fed by the admirable

Beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...

, but later moved by Hugo Carmody to a caravan owned by

Rupert Baxter Rupert J. Baxter is a fictional character in the Blandings stories by P. G. Wodehouse. Often called the Efficient Baxter, he is Lord Emsworth's secretary, and an expert on many things, including Egyptian scarabs. He invariably wears his rimless s ...

. In '' Heavy Weather'', she finds

Galahad Threepwood The Honourable Galahad "Gally" Threepwood is a fictional character in the Blandings Castle stories by P. G. Wodehouse. Lord Emsworth's younger brother, a lifelong bachelor, Gally was, according to Beach, the Blandings butler, "somewhat wild as a ...

's notorious memoirs, hidden in her custom-built new sty by Percy Pilbeam, and eats the whole book, and not long afterward finds herself in the dicky of Ronnie Fish's car, as he threatens to run off with her if her master refuses to fund Fish's elopement. Throughout this, both Emsworth and Gally suspect Parsloe-Parsloe of being behind all the foul play. The book opens with the Empress about to attempt her second silver medal and the book closes by implying that she won. In ''

'', she is once again taken captive, and hidden in a bathroom by the Duke of Dunstable, but flees when Lord Bosham lets off a shotgun in her vicinity. In ''

'', Bill Lister is twice hired to paint her portrait, and she is put in Veronica Wedge's bedroom for a time by Gally, while in ''

'' she spends some time at Matchingham Hall, home of Parsloe-Parsloe, having been stolen by the turncoat Wellbeloved in response to Gally's cunning theft of Parsloe's new pig, the Queen of Matchingham. Her subsequent rescue leaves her plenty of time to return to form, before her triumphant third Silver Medal. In '' Service with a Smile'', a Church Lad teases her with a potato on a piece of string, and Dunstable once again schemes to take her away from Lord Emsworth, planning to sell her to

Lord Tilbury George Alexander Pyke, Lord Tilbury is a recurring fictional character in the stories of British author P. G. Wodehouse. Pyke is a publishing magnate, the founder and owner of the Mammoth Publishing Company. Outside his business, he has a passi ...

, but the plot (involving Lavender Briggs and Wellbeloved) is blocked by the dashing

Uncle Fred Frederick Altamont Cornwallis Twistleton, 5th Earl of Ickenham, commonly known as Uncle Fred, is a fictional character who appears in comedic short stories and novels written by P. G. Wodehouse between 1935 and 1961. An energetic and mischievous ol ...

. In ''

'', dastardly Huxley Winkworth, feeling she is overweight, plots to release her and give her some exercise. When he finally gets past Monica Simmons' able guard, he finds the Empress suffering from a hangover, Wilfred Allsop having dropped a flask of whisky into her trough the day before; she bites his finger, and Emsworth's fears that she may be in danger of infection prove priceless to his own happiness.

External links

An article on hog-calling, Hunstanton Hall and Charles LeStrange
possible inspiration for Blandings, Lord Emsworth and the Empress

from Oklahoma State University Dept of Animal Science
A feature on some Berkshires
from the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

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