Over Seventy

When is an autobiography not an autobiography? When the author is P. G. Wodehouse. Over Seventy purports to be a series of answers to stray questions about ageing given by a rambling old gentleman full of irrelevant anecdote and wise saws, but when the rambling old gentleman in question happens to be P. G. Wodehouse we know that this persona is a shrewd literary strategy. Underneath the strategy, Wodehouse's feeling for literary form and his nose for comedy are as strong as ever. Presenting himself as a traditional Englishman who deplores the baring of souls - and doubts if he has a soul of his own to bare - Wodehouse neatly sidesteps difficult biographical questions in favour of self deprecating humour and comic vignette. But if Over Seventy is deliberately evasive, its very discretion tells us a lot more about one of the most celebrated twentieth-century writers. A charming and very funny book which reveals more than it tells.