The debonair Uncle Fred makes a welcome return to Blandings, where plotting and confusion is rife. Blackmail, sabotage, jilted lovers and pigs under threat of kidnap all feature largely, making this hilarious instalment in the Blandings series irresistible to fans and newcomers alike.

The story sees lovely debutante Myra Schoonmaker unhappily ensconced in Blandings at the insistence of Lady Constance Keeble, who objects to Myra’s entanglement with down-at-heel curate Bill Bailey. But Blandings never has been a place to stifle the wants of the heart for long.

Soon, all kinds of subterfuge and shifty goings-on are afoot to reunite the lovebirds, with the help of an unbeatable cast of misfits and society schmoozers including Pongo Twistleton, Lord Tilbury, Lavender Briggs and of course, amiably vague Lord Emsworth and his trusty ‘man-mountain’ butler Beach.

Listening Length

4 hours and 53 minutes
Author

P. G. Wodehouse
Narrator

Martin Jarvis
Audible release date

February 18, 2010
Language

English
Publisher

CSA Word
ASIN

B0038ZUJBE
Version

Abridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	4 hours and 53 minutes
Author	P. G. Wodehouse
Narrator	Martin Jarvis
Audible.com Release Date	February 18, 2010
Publisher	CSA Word
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Abridged
Language	English
ASIN	B0038ZUJBE
Best Sellers Rank	#155,599 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #1,667 in Humorous Fiction & Satire #11,308 in Humorous Fiction

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5

291 global ratings

5 star		78%
4 star		15%
3 star		4%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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MJP

Should be six stars

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 23, 2022

Verified Purchase

All P.G. Wodehouse is excellent, but this one surpasses even his usual high standards. And the Overlook editions are beautiful hardbacks. I have most of the canon in the old Penguin editions, but after many decades and many re-readings, they are falling apart. Overlook to the rescue!

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Tina the S.

Service With a Smile: by A Master...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 22, 2018

Verified Purchase

Oh, P.G., we can not help but love you! Your plot twists and turns are hilarious..and everything always comes out just right in the end. Always a treat for a seemingly light read and a huge amount of laughter, with social import and commentary being woven-in while one is not really realizing or caring about it and its importance to the shaping of his stories, long or short. Be careful while reading next to another person, as one can burst out loudly laughing at any time, especially as his plots thicken into delightfully messy delights, with everything together always managing to make perfect sense in the end...lovely farce, which is a High Art, lost in today's rushed world where his type of nuances and perfect choice of description are often just lost in more modern works which came after this Master craftsman of humor par excellence. Just Delicious reading, written by a True Master of his craft, easily making the ridiculous make perfectly good sense...without the reader always realizing how she is being gently but inexorably lead along these hilarious story lines as they weave together to form a tightly knit Thing of Beautiful Craftsmanship. His stories all work out in perfect ways, with perfect TIMING. And this timing and wit define his brilliant and vastly entertaining brand of farce.

7 people found this helpful

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V Henley

Arrived on time; Great condition!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 4, 2021

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Book arrived on time. Great condition. Brand new: as described. No issues whatsoever!

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P. Winter

Delightful

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 1, 2017

Verified Purchase

If your a person who enjoys rich allusion, appreciates a masterful use of the English language, and likes to laugh out loud you'll enjoy this book as well as P. G. Wodehouse' s other Blandings Castle and Lord Ickenham books. Kick back and have fun!

2 people found this helpful

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M. Ramakrishnan

One of best of Uncle Fred.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 26, 2016

Verified Purchase

Wodehouse is my fav author and love all his books. Wodehouse books are my constant companion when I am travelling, full of humor, satire and never boring. I never tire reading about Blandings Castle.

2 people found this helpful

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Christopher I. Lehrich

Classic Wodehouse

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 12, 2018

Verified Purchase

Hardly Wodehouse's best, but Uncle Fred is as charmingly mad and destabilizing as ever, and Wodehouse's wit and light touch are sure.

One person found this helpful

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Michaelene P. Llewellyn

P G Wodehouse Summer Lightening

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 13, 2013

Verified Purchase

P G Wodehouse always entertains with a combination of humor and wisdom. His tongue-in-cheek style can be light and, at times, cutting as he comments on the social norms of his day (UK and US). The performer captures the characters and caricatures perfectly, resulting in a most delightful experience.

4 people found this helpful

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Michael S Lowe

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 30, 2016

Verified Purchase

Usual good read from PG

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Top reviews from other countries

Poldy

The Last of Uncle Fred

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 24, 2012

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We're back at Blandings and, as usual, things aren't going well for woolly-headed peer Lord Emsworth. He has Wellbeloved back as pig-man, but he also has a domineering secretary, Lavender Briggs, who needs five-hundred pounds to set up her own secretarial bureau, and isn't above arranging the kidnapping of Lord Emsworth's prize pig, Empress of Blandings, to get it. He also has to cope with the domineering Alaric, Duke of Dunstable, who has once again invited himself to Blandings, and who is still under the impression that his pig-obsessed host is dotty, and is still determined to get said pig away from him, especially now that he has a buyer willing to pay good money for it. Meanwhile, Myra Schoonmaker, daughter of a rich American businessman, has been removed to Blandings by Lord Emsworth's formidable sister, Lady Constance, to keep her away from the man she loves, penniless curate Cuthbert "Bill" Bailey. Lady Constance hopes Myra will fall in love with Dunstable's nephew Archie. As if all this weren't enough, Lord Emsworth has to cope with the Church Lads' Brigade, who are camped en mass on the Castle grounds. Lucky, then, that, while on an enforced visit to London for the opening of Parliament, Lord Emsworth should encounter his fellow Earl, the irrepressible Frederick Altamont Cornwallis Twistleton, fifth Earl of Ickenham, who agrees to travel back to Blandings with Lord Emsworth to help sort out the tangle and spread sweetness and light the way only he can.

This is the eighth Blandings novel, and the last of four to feature that most delightful of Wodehouse creations, the Earl of Ickenham, better known as Uncle Fred. Although Wodehouse was eighty-one when he wrote this novel, there is no sign of his powers failing. This is a charming light novel which runs along beautifully in a well-worn groove, full of those verbal felicities for which Wodehouse is so loved. Few writers have been better than Wodehouse at plotting, and here as so often he draws a tangled skein of plots and weaves everything together with the firm hand of a master. Everything is for the best in the best of all worlds, the world of Blandings, a paradise from which there has been no fall. The only sad note is that this is the last time we will encounter Uncle Fred, but we can take heart, as he would himself, that in this final appearance he spreads much sweetness and light in his own inimitable fashion.

6 people found this helpful

Mr. D. R. Goodman

Top-class Wodehouse!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 3, 2013

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I would say this is one of the best Blandings castle books, but they are ALL 'one of the best'! A brilliantly-woven plot, the funniest writer of the 20th century, a plot to steal the Empress involving double and treble-dealings between the Duke of Dunstable, Lord Emsworth's secretary and her former employer Lord Tilbury, and much much more, all played out in the golden Shropshire sunlight of a world that no longer exists - if it ever did. Pure escapism of the very best kind, by a writer who knew how to weave plots and resolve them, all with the wonderful, gentle humour that runs through all the Blandings books. Everyone should read the Blandings books, all of them, and then re-read them over and again, because they are of the few that you can enjoy time and again, no matter how often you have read them. Value for money? And then some!

One person found this helpful

Rosetwine

Blew me away

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 29, 2013

Verified Purchase

This is the first ever Wodehouse book I've read and it blew me away. Very quick reading - it took me a mere 7 hours to read through the entire book (from 1pm - 8pm) and every page is perfection in language, wit and humour!!! I'm still in a daze from Wodehouse's genius! I loved all of the characters - from the "exuberant" problem-solving Uncle Fred to his guardian angel to the Duke of Dunstable's moustache - utterly hilarious!! Wodehouse is by far a master of modern writing - not just comic writing. And I strongly suspect that modern comedians borrow from his work and style in one way or another. I thoroughly recommend Service with a Smile! You will be smiling the whole way through!!

4 people found this helpful

Brendan Flynn

Excellent P G Wodehouse

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 7, 2021

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A very enjoyable read. With Lord Emsworth, the Empress of Blandings, Uncle Fred and the devious Duke of Dunstable you know there's all manner of plots and shenanigans going on!

2 people found this helpful

Platinum195

you'll find plennty to enjoy. If you're new to Wodehouse try one of ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 24, 2017

Verified Purchase

This is Wodehouse in black and white, but most Blandings books are in the brightest colour. The usual skilled plotting is there and so are many familiar Blandings characters, but somehow it just doesn't sparkle as much as one hopes and expects. That said, you'll find plennty to enjoy. If you're new to Wodehouse try one of the earler Blandings masterieces, such as Summer Lightning. Then after one or two more, move on to Leave it to Psmith, my favourite.

3 people found this helpful

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