The Clicking of Cuthbert and Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (Penguin, £4.99 each in UK)

The first of these two volumes is a collection of golfing stories, golf being Wodehouse's great passion in life, along with writing…

The first of these two volumes is a collection of golfing stories, golf being Wodehouse's great passion in life, along with writing (apparently he was as inept with a golf club as he was good with a typewriter). They are, to be frank, rather whimsical and slight, as he often was when he got away from Jeeves and Bertie and the Blandings Castle set - or, to put it bluntly, facile potboilers. Carry On, Jeeves has the distinction of being the first of the immortal partnership, though again it is a collection of stories, not a novel. First published in 1925, it still has life but the great days of Jeeves and Bertie were still to come.

Brian Fallon