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Mike – Mike at Wrykyn – Mike and Psmith
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Main page / Bibliography / Mike – Mike at Wrykyn – Mike and Psmith
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First published in UK: September 15 1909 by Adam & Charles Black, London
E-text (613K)
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Click for enlarge book cover
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Characters
Mrs. Jackson — Mike's mother
Marjory Jackson — Mike's sister aged 14
Reggie Jackson — Mike's brother
Mr. Jackson — Mike's father, an Old Wrykynian
Phyllis Jackson — Mike's sister
Mr. Wain — Housemaster at Wrykyn
Bob Jackson — An older brother aged 18 at Donaldson's House
Mike Jackson — Hero and member of Wain's House
Joe Jackson — Mike's famous brother and professional cricketer
Ella Jackson — Mike's sister
Gladys Maud Evangeline Jackson — Mike's 3 year old sister
Saunders — Professional cricketer and teacher to the Jackson boys
Uncle John — Mike's uncle
(Gazeka) Firby-Smith — Head of Wain's
James Wyatt — Wain's stepson, a friend of Mike's in the First Eleven
Miss Payne — Matron of Wain's
Billy Burgess — Captain of the school Cricket team
Westbrook — Master at King-Hall's
Trevor — Member of Donaldson's
Clowes — Member of Donaldson's
Henfry — On First Eleven
Constable Alfred Butt — Policeman in Wrykyn
Headmaster
Neville-Smith — Day boy at Wrykyn
Willoughby — Day boy at Wrykyn in the Lower Fifth
Brown — Day boy at Wrykyn
Mr. Spence — Master of Lower Fifth and Cricket Master
Mr. Seymour — Master of Lower Fourth and Housemaster
Mr. Shields — Master
Mr. Appleby — Master
Bates — School sergeant
Berridge — Cricketer on the First Eleven
Marsh — Cricketer on the First Eleven
Morris — Cricketer on the First Eleven
Reeves — Cricketer
Wilkins — Member of School House
Raikes — Member of Appleby's and cricketer
Burton — Member of Donaldson's
Ellerby — On First Eleven
Jenkins — Cricketer
Clephane — Day boy and cricketer
(Shoeblossom) Leather-Twigg — Member of Seymour's who got chickenpox
Dr. Oakes — School doctor
Beverly — Day boy at Wrykyn
Mr. Blenkinsop — Manager of the London & Oriental Bank where Wyatt works
MacPherson — Manager of Mr. Jackson's sheep farm in Argentina
Vicar Bartlitt of Crofton
Strachan — Captain of Wrykyn cricket team by default
Sheen — Lightweight boxing champ for Wrykyn
Mr. Outwood — Housemaster at Mike's at Sedleigh
Rupert Psmith — Mike's good friend who lives at Lower Berford, Shropshire and came from Eton
Spiller — Member of Outwood's and a Senior at Sedleigh
Mr. Downing — Housemaster and Master of School Fire Brigade and Cricket
Tom G. Jellicoe — Member of Outwood's, a Senior and roomate of Psmith and Jackson
Robinson — Member of Outwood's, a Senior, cricketer and member of the Fire Brigade
Stone — Member of Outwood's, a Senior, cricketer and member of the Fire Brigade
Barnes — Head of Outwood's
Adair — Member of Downing's, a natural leader who is Captain of cricket and football
Prendergast — Member of village cricket team and played against Mike with the Free Forester's
Sammy or Sampson — Mr. Downing's bull-terrior who gets painted red
Wilson — Member of School House and Fire Brigade
Dunster — Old Sedleighan who was at private school with Psmith and painted Sammy red.
Mr. Barley — Landlord of the White Bear in Lower Borlock and member of the village cricket team
Sergeant Collard — School sergeant
MacPhee — Member of Downing's
Markby — Groundsman for Sedleigh
Edmund — Bootboy for Outwood's
Barlow — Headmaster's butler
Allenby — a prefect in the Science Sixth of Wrykyn (*)
Barlitt (*)
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In 1953 Herbert Jenkins revised slightly and published the first part as Mike at Wrykyn
and the last part as Mike and Psmith
Mike at Wrykyn
Even for a young cricketing genius like Mile Jackson life at public school is not always a bowl of cherries.
When Mike's older brother Bob becomes his chief adversary in securing a place in the school team,
a conflict of loyalties becomes inevitable.
Mike at Wrykyn is a delightful romp though the early career of a highly talented sportsman.
The evocation of public school life and the codes of honour belonging to school, family and the game
are conveyed with all Wodehouse's customary wit and brilliance.
Mike and Psmith
It was preference for cricket over schoolwork that caused Mike to be removed from Wrykyn
and Psmith (the P is silent - compare the Z in Zbysco) ftom Eton.
United in their reluctance to attend their new school, Sedleigh, good-natured Mike and the debonair
Psmith become firm friends, resolving to make the best of injustice and devote their energies
exclusively to ragging.
Sedleigh insists, above all, that its boys be keen, but it is sorely
unprepared for boys of such foresight
and resources as Mike and Psmith. The school, as Psmith would say, confuses the unusual
with the impossible, and is thus taken very much by surprise by the duo in their element.
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Synopsis
Of the five Jackson brothers one plays cricket for England, two others for
counties. But Mike, the youngest at fifteen, shows signs of being the best
batsman of them all. He goes to Wrykyn School as a new boy. His elder
brother Bob is in his last term and they both get their First XI colours
that summer. Mike, in the Ripton match, turns disaster into victory with a
heroic innings. But two years later Mike's school report is so bad that his
father removes him from Wrykyn, when he is just about to be cricket
captain, and sends him to a minor school, Sedleigh, where they make boys
work.
At Sedleigh Mike meets, and becomes friends with, another elderly new boy,
similarly displaced from Eton, and similarly scornful of his new school -
Psmith. The two 'lost lambs' share a study, and decide not to take cricket
seriously, but to rag. The Sedleigh cricket captain, Adair, dislikes Mike's
lack of keenness and it takes a fist-fight (which Mike wins by a knock-out)
to cure his antagonism to Adair and to Sedleigh.
Source: Richard Usborne. Plum Sauce. A P G Wodehouse Companion.
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