G goes off to tackle Murch. Succeeds. Goes back to
hammock. Plus Piper says he is engaged. G gets him to give Jeff job of painting
his portrait, — and you know hundreds of rich people, you can recommend Jeff to
them. P agrees. Ø Ø +
Ld E with necklace.
—
Ld E.
G
sees car draw up at door.
Florence comes out and stands waiting for Brenda. G. goes to her, tells her
that Piper has given Jeff portrait job for princely sum, all his pals in
Cabinet will have their portraits painted by Jeff for princely sum, Ld E will
pay him highly for Empress and Beach will add his bit as a wedding present. ?
Beach is J’s uncle. ? F gets into car without a word.
End with Gally chatting with Beach.
THE
END
*
At a
very early stage, perhaps back in 1973, Wodehouse felt he had two conflicting
novels jostling towards Blandings to be born. In the next sequence of our
transcription, which Wodehouse has headed “Novel A” we see the exciting
possibility of Bertie Wooster, Jeeves and Stiffy Byng turning up to set the
plots at the castle.
*
NOVEL
A
Start :— Probably
the best account of the fire at X Hall, which is about a mile from Blandings
Castle, was in the X, with which is incorporated etc. For some reason the
Times, the etc and the other national newspapers did not cover it, but the X
did it proud.
Lord E read it while breakfasting. Felt that X, the owner of the
Hall, whom he disliked, had been asking for something like this for years.
Lady X tells him they must take X and Co in.
|
Not using
the fire (or possibly using it) try this
1.
Hero and
heroine engaged. They have a row. (What about?)
2.
To keep hero
from leaving house, heroine steals necklace. (Whose?)
3. Investigations start. Heroine fears she will
be found with necklace. (Why?)
4. She gives it to someone to hide. (Who? Her
brother?)
See below
)
5.
Reconciliation. Heroine asks brother (G) to
return necklace. He refuses. (Why? Could make big comic character, Eg a
playwright, who wants to keep necklace to finance his play.
6. Big comic sequence with hero trying to steal
necklace from brother. (How end?)
|
Try this.
It would be much more plausible if heroine goes to ‘brother’ and says hero is
leaving and she will have no time to get reconciled, and brother
suggests the stealing of necklace and says he will do it.
Good X)
Then, instead of refusing to return necklace, ‘brother’ has
accident and loses his memory and so we get a situation as in Money In The
Bank with brother— uncle?— hero & heroine combining to try to find
necklace (This makes ‘brother’ not crooked, a great improvement).
Good)
Could wife who owns necklace suspect her husband of having stolen
it?
|
*
Novel
A
Hero is an artist.
Start with some comic scene with heroine.
She goes with him to his studio.
It is humble and his pictures bad. She thinks he is poor.
Ld E wants pig’s portrait. She recommends hero.
Then all the incidents which end in them getting engaged.
*
She says it will be like Bohemian, artistic poverty.
He reveals that he has had a comic strip running in America for
years. It has now reached stage where other artists do the drawing.
Good
)
|
Try this.
Have a Character (whom Ld E dislikes?) who turns out to be a famous animal
painter who is eager to paint Empress.
|
End. Hero,
engaged to heroine, goes to London to buy ring. He meets the man who was
engaged to heroine, who has been thinking it over and decided to marry her.
Make him very patronizing about her, says he has no doubt she will resume
engagement. After all, who is she? (Who
is
she? Parson’s daughter? or niece of
[?]
woman?)
.
Hero
says he can see only one objection, that she is going to marry
him
.
Good
)
|
What Characters have I got?
1.
Hero
2.
Heroine
3. Heroine’s
fiancé.
4. Lord
Emsworth
Only four!
|
Problems
1.
What does fiancé quarrel with heroine about?
|
Ch 1
.
Hero and heroine meet. They have known
each other as kids. ‘What are you doing now?’ — I’m secty to Lady X at
Blandings.
|
*
Novel
A
Try this.
Make owner of jewel an important character. (Query. Old flame of Ld E?). Ld E
reluctantly in danger of marrying her.
Φ
She finally gets engaged to man who has been staying at ‘fire’
house, and he turns not to be big animal painter who wants to paint Empress.
This will give me six characters.
Good
)
|
Problem.
Who is heroine?
Φ
|
Φ
Try
this. Ld E’s sister Dora is at Blandings. She insists on ‘fire’ lot being
taken in and wants Ld E to marry ‘jewel’ woman.
Heroine is her secretary.
So now I have seven characters.
Good
)
|
Can I make
the man who gets engd to jewel woman the cabinet minister with detective
dogging him. He confides his problem to Ld E, who does something (like giving
tec Mickey Finn which puts him out of action. He goes off to propose and
comes back and tells Ld E he is engaged.
(If I was
this, I either scrap idea of big painter and pig or else have him tell Ld E
he knows painter who wants to paint pig.
Good
)
|
To ask
somebody. What does an artist of a successful comic strip get, and how much
when he hands over the strip to other hack artists?
|
*
NOVEL
A
Try it as a
Jeeves story.
1.
Bertie is staying at
Blandings. A niece of Lord Emsworth’s is there, and she and Bertie are great
pals.
Note: Bertie cd propose to her, using that idea
of trying to persuade girl by saying she wd have a husband she cd tell
stories about. And she tells him she is engaged to a man he knows who lives
in the neighbourhood.
2.
Girl comes to him in
tears and says she has quarrelled with man and engt broken.
3
. Man’s house has fire. The inhabitants are
asked to stay at Blandings. Make this plausible. Ld E wd object strongly, so heroine’s
mother ought to be his sister Dora from Pigs Have Wings, and she over-rules
him. So hero comes to Blandings.
4
. Hero has to leave. Then jewel is stolen.
(Whose?)
5.
Heroine comes to Bertie
—
says she
stole jewel to keep hero from leaving house. Lands B with it.
|
Good so far
but no part yet for Jeeves or Ld E and pig.
|
I don’t
believe it’s a Jeeves story. I think man heroine loves goes to London, as
residents aren’t compelled to stay, and run of story is heroine falling for
chap she gives jewel to: (This wd make the first man a rotter of some kind.
Work on
this
)
|
Heroine
steals her mother’s jewel. If caught she will get sent to her Grandmother in
Bexhill.
X
)
Title: Lord Emsworth Entertains.
|
*
Novel A
If a
Blandings story, Bertie goes out at night with Ld E to see pig,
Φ
who has not been well.
Φ
Ld E wants him to
see
pig by moonlight.
They come
back, Ld E in lead. He absent mindedly shuts front door, leaving B locked
out.
Good
)
B. climbs in through a window and is seen by detective and becomes
a suspect (OR climbs in and meets heroine
Φ
and proposes. She says she is engaged to neighbour.
Φ ‘Will
you marry me. Not immediately of course. When we have had time to assemble a
clergyman or two.)
|
Try this.
Stiffy is at Blandings. Also heroine. Stiffy wants to steal pig
ù
it
has become such an obsession with Ld E. (get some stronger motive)
.
Heroine
wants to get hero to stay on.
|
I don’t
know if the man afraid of being knighted wd come into Novel A, but a good
solution wd be if some acquaintance of him and his wife’s got made a Lord,
and she tells him on no account to accept a knighthood.
XX
)
|
Sequence
1.
Fire. Man
comes to Blandings.
2.
He &
heroine have row.
3. Girl steals jewels, gives them to hero to
keep.
4. Hero gives them to Ld E.
5.
Man leaves. The company haven’t been told to
stay.
6. Hero asks Ld E for the package he gave him.
Ld E either has forgotten and denies having any package or has lost his
memory.
7. Hero searches Ld E’s study. Is he caught? By
Bertie.
Φ
|
Φ
If they both search study, something cd happen eg clap
of thunder, which causes heroine to fall into hero’s arms. (c.f. Uneasy
Money).
This might
be good
)
|
*
