The Old Reliable

By P. G. Wodehouse

Categories: Humor & Entertainment, Literature & Fiction

The Old Reliable (1951) is set in Hollywood, at the house of Adela Shannon Cork, a former silent-film star. Her idle brother-in-law Smedley lives on her charity, and her sister Wilhelmina, called Bill, is a writer known as the Old Reliable. When a diary packed with film-colony scandal resurfaces, half the household wants it, and Phipps, the butler, turns out to have a past as a safe-cracker.

Recommended by 1 person

• Fareed Zakaria: “P. G. Wodehouse. I’ve read almost everything he wrote. He once explained that there were two ways of writing novels. “One is mine, making the thing a sort of musical comedy without music, ignoring real life altogether; the other is going right down deep into life and not caring a damn.” He did the former better than almost anyone.”