''Jeeves and the King of Clubs'' is a 2018 novel by

Ben Schott Ben Schott (born 26 May 1974) is a British writer, photographer, and author of the ''Schott's Miscellanies'' and '' Schott's Almanac'' series. Early life and university Ben Schott was born in North London, England, the son of a neurologist ...

, set in

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, Jeev ...

Jeeves and Wooster ''Jeeves and Wooster'' is a British comedy-drama television series adapted by Clive Exton from P. G. Wodehouse's "Jeeves" stories. It aired on the ITV network from 22 April 1990 to 20 June 1993, with the last series nominated for a British ...

universe. ''Jeeves and the King of Clubs'' was produced with the permission of Sir

Edward Cazalet Sir Edward Stephen Cazalet DL (born 26 April 1936) is a retired judge of the High Court of England and Wales. Early life Edward Cazalet was born in 1936, the son of the Queen Mother's racehorse trainer Peter Cazalet and Leonora Wodehouse, t ...

, the executor of Wodehouse's estate. In October 2017, the

publishing rights A publishing contract is a legal contract between a publisher and a writer or author (or more than one), to publish original content by the writer(s) or author(s). This may involve a single written work, or a series of works. In the case of music p ...

were purchased by Hutchinson for a six-figure sum.

Plot

Bertie Wooster learns to his amazement that Jeeves' club for butlers and valets, the Junior Ganymede Club, is actually a front for a secretive arm of the British intelligence services. Because of a series of bizarre events, Bertie must help Jeeves track down and unmask a dangerous spy.

Reception

Reception to the novel was generally positive.

Alexander Larman Alexander Larman (born 29 November 1981) is a British author, journalist, historian, and literary editor of The Spectator World. A writer of multiple historical biographies, including those of John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, Lord Byron and E ...

described the novel as "an amusing and well written homage".

Ian Sansom Ian Edward Sansom (born 3 December 1966 in Essex, England) is the author of the Mobile Library Mystery Series. As of 2016, he has written four books in a series that will comprise a projected forty-four novels. He is a frequent contributor to, a ...

described the work as a "

bravura In classical music a bravura is a style of both music and its performance intended to show off the skill of a performer. John Alexander Fuller-Maitland, ''A dictionary of music and musicians (A.D. 1450-1889)'p. 271-272/ref> Commonly, it is a virt ...

performance" and a "bang-on Bertie Wooster reboot". ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' Matthew Adams called it "a most thrilling return". ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'' Tom Mathews called the work a "pale imitation". Paddy Kehoe for

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

gave the work three and a half

stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

out of five. Sophie Ratcliffe for ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...

'' called the work as "Wodehouse for the Brexit era". Tom Williams reviewed the novel for ''

Literary Review ''Literary Review'' is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at the University of Edinburgh. Its offices are on Lexington Street in Soho. The magazine was edited for fourteen years by v ...

''. Schott published a sequel entitled ''Jeeves and the Leap of Faith'' in 2020.

References

External links

Schott reads an extract from ''Jeeves and the King of Clubs''
on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

{{Jeeves 2018 British novels P. G. Wodehouse Hutchinson (publisher) books Little, Brown and Company books