Tales of Wrykyn And Elsewhere

<p>The stories in this collection reflect Wodehouse&#146;s own happy schooldays at Dulwich College but they also do a good deal more. Although among his earliest attempts at fiction they give fascinating glimpses of a time when motor cars were novelties schoolmasters wore mortar boards and gowns and America was a rising power in the world.<br><br>The best of them display the author&#146;s love of games and knack for neat plotting. In one a resourceful teenaged heroine helps a truant schoolboy cricketer by marooning his credulous schoolmaster at the top of a church tower until the match is over. Another describes a boy escaping from the scene of his crime by a passing car only to be caught out by a last-minute revelation. Several Sherlock Holmes parodies read as what they are &#150; high-spirited experiments &#150; but the longer stories delve deeper into character: together they recreate a vanished world of school shops fagging Latin prep and hearty teas.</p>