A fascinating and thoroughly entertaining investigation, based on meticulous research and convincing reasoning, supported by a profound knowledge of the subject matter.
Is there, I wonder, a likely candidate for the "real" Drones Club of which Bertie Wooster was an habitué?
The Drones was very much a composite, of a kind of Mayfair-Georgian-townhouse-converted-into-a-club that was very fashionable in the inter-war years; though it must be remembered that P. G. Wodehouse moved to France as early as 1923, so his memories of England were often based on his youth - which is particularly obvious in the use of anachronistic slang. The two most obvious clubs which influenced the Drones would have been Buck's - of which Wodehouse was an early member - with its real-life cocktail-making barman McGarry, just as in the Drones; and the now-defunct, mixed-sex Bath Club at 34 Dover Street, whose swimming pool with metal rings hanging over it closely matched Wodehouse's description. The Bath Club's original building was bombed in 1941, though it continued to exist in various incarnations until the 1980s, but without a swimming pool.
A fascinating and thoroughly entertaining investigation, based on meticulous research and convincing reasoning, supported by a profound knowledge of the subject matter.
Is there, I wonder, a likely candidate for the "real" Drones Club of which Bertie Wooster was an habitué?
Thanks for the kind comment!
The Drones was very much a composite, of a kind of Mayfair-Georgian-townhouse-converted-into-a-club that was very fashionable in the inter-war years; though it must be remembered that P. G. Wodehouse moved to France as early as 1923, so his memories of England were often based on his youth - which is particularly obvious in the use of anachronistic slang. The two most obvious clubs which influenced the Drones would have been Buck's - of which Wodehouse was an early member - with its real-life cocktail-making barman McGarry, just as in the Drones; and the now-defunct, mixed-sex Bath Club at 34 Dover Street, whose swimming pool with metal rings hanging over it closely matched Wodehouse's description. The Bath Club's original building was bombed in 1941, though it continued to exist in various incarnations until the 1980s, but without a swimming pool.
Maybe another talk at the Northern Counties once your new book comes out...?