“[I'm] as broke as the ten commandments.”
P. G. “Plum” Wodehouse knew a thing or two about the money-go-round; in 1938 he was the world's highest paid writer. At times, his financial affairs read like one of his own comic plots, as British and American tax inspectors chased him from pillar to post across two continents. Many of his characters are similarly afflicted: but whether they have too much or too little splosh in the old sock, they always seem to learn — in the funniest ways possible — that money is an excellent servant and a terrible master.
The fifth of Paul Kent's occasional essays on matters Wodehousean is packed with paupers and plutocrats, meritocrats and misers all mooching with Mammon. It most certainly is funny in this rich man's world!
