Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth, sank back in his chair looking like the good old man in a Victorian melodrama whose mortgage the villain has just foreclosed. he felt the absence of that gentle glow which customarily accompanied the departure of one of his sisters. His brain worked at a speed consistent with the approach of danger, Lord Emsworth needed Galahad.

For a while it is touch and go. There are tricky corners to be rounded, and assorted

Can the Empress of Blandings win the Fat Pigs class at the Shropshire Show for the third year running? Galahad Threepwood, Beach the butler, and others have put their shirt on this, and for Lord Emsworth it will be paradise on earth. But a substantial obstacle lurks in the way: Queen of Matchingham, the new sow of Sir Gregory Parsloe. Galahad knows this pretender to the crown must be pignapped. But can the Empress in turn avoid a similar fate?

Contained here are nine glorious episodes from the idyllic world of Wodehouse. There's a crime wave which broke out towards the middle of a fine summer afternoon and was to rock Blandings Castle to its foundations, Ukridge appears on Corky's doorstep at three in the morning, wearing his yellow mackintosh and requesting a whisky and soda, while the Oldest Member warns of the folly of driving into the father of the girl you love ...