The Small Bachelor: Pelham Wodehouse

It`s America during Prohibition and shy young George Finch is setting out as an artist - without the encumbrance of a shred of talent. George falls in love with Molly, whose imperious stepmother Mrs Waddington insists he`s not the man to marry the stepdaughter of one of New York`s most fashionable hostesses. Poor George - he doesn`t seem to stand a chance.

How George eventually triumphs over the bossy Mrs Waddington makes for a dizzying plot featuring some of Wodehouse`s most appealing minor characters - Mullett the butler and his light-fingered girlfriend Fanny, J. Hamilton Beamish, author of the dynamic Beamish Booklets, Officer Garroway the poetic policeman, and Sigsbee H. Waddington, the hen-pecked husband who longs for the wide open spaces of the West.

Oh, and does Prohibition mean there`s no booze? In a Wodehouse novel? You`ll have to wait and see...