Bachelors Anonymous was the second-last novel that Wodehouse completed. He was in his 90s when he wrote it; by this time he must have been churning out frothy novellas of this sort over a breakfast of runny eggs and toast soldiers. It's unsurprising that he is, at this stage, re-using many familiar tropes from other novels; I noticed quite a few that were echoed from French Leave.

In this one, a Hollywood mogul with a habit of serial marriage is heading to London. His lawyer, concerned that he may incur yet another entanglement ending in expensive divorce, introduces him to the concept of Bachelors Anonymous, a support group of single men who gather and counsel any wavering man who shows signs of wanting to date a woman. The lawyer puts him in touch with a London law firm that can arrange the same service.

The job falls to a struggling playwright who has just himself fallen head-over-heels in love with a struggling journalist who is suddenly the beneficiary of a large estate. From there, the typical Wodehouse hi-jinks unfurl, with pretty predictable outcomes. ( )

I liked it, but it's definitely one of his lesser works. Not enough complicating complications. ( )

A typical Wodehouse story. Pairs of young people find each other, get mixed up, and finally end up with the "right" partners. The plot this time concerns a rich Hollywood movie magnate who has fled to London to avoid another marriage. His lawyer is a charter member of Bachelor's Anonymous and instructs him to hire a young man to run interference between the movie magnate and any eligible British women the magnate might be tempted to propose to. The young man he finds is a struggling playwright who falls in love with a reporter who has just inherited a lot of money (with a catch). ( )

Mr. Trout, a lawyer whose client, Ivor Llewellyn of the Superba-Llewellyn studio of Hollywood, heads to England as a member of Bachelors Anonymous to stop Mr. Llewellyn from marrying Vera Dalrymple, the star of Joe Pickering's new play, which fails miserably because Vera takes all the good lines for herself. Joe gets a job with Mr. Llewellyn and falls in love with Sally Fitch, who has just inherited a tidy sum of money if she can abstain from smoking cigarettes. Sally is watched by Daphne Dolby, who loves Sir Jaklyn Warner, who is like some of Wodehouse's less admirable characters in handling and obtaining of money. At some point, Mr. Trout meets Amelia Bingham, who changes his opinion about the evils of marriage. And nearly everyone lives happily ever after. ( )

Not a Jeeves or Blandings Castlenovel, but worthy nevertheless.

Just the book for a day off ill ( which I was today). All of the usual confusions, changed plans and getting there in the end.

Some delightful writing and some great one liners...

"....the crookedness of [him] was such as to enable him to hide at will behind a spiral staircase...." ( )