I just finished the audio book Uneasy Money by P.G. Wodehouse, whom I discovered just last year. The audio book’s packaging stated that Jonathon Cecil narrated the story, which was why I got that particular set of CDs. Actually, that was a mistake and someone else, not as talented narrated. How odd.

The story itself is entertaining. The hero, William (Bill) FitzWilliam Delamere Chalmers, Lord Dawlish, wants to marry but his fiancée won’t consider living on his measly allowance. So Bill decides to seek a fortune in the US, where he believes money is easily plucked from trees by the bushel. Just before he’s about depart, he learns that a man he happened to meet and happened to coach on how to straighten out his golf swing, has left him 5,000,000 £! Feeling guilty, that the tycoon gave his fortune to him, Bill decides  to seek out the man’s niece and nephew who’ve gotten a pittance. They’re both living outside New York.

In the meantime, Bill’s fiancée comes to America when her newly rich friend sends her a ticket to visit her. On board, the fiancée meets a millionaire and agrees to marry him.

New romances, mix ups and misunderstandings ensue all described with Wodehouse’s delicious, witty language.

While the story is entertaining, it’s not on par with the Jeeves stories. Nonetheless, I enjoyed Uneasy Money.

Quotes:

“At the age of eleven or thereabouts women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later seventies.”

“The ideal girl . . . would be kind. That was because she would also be extremely intelligent, and, being extremely intelligent, would have need of kindness to enable her to bear with a not very intelligent man like himself.”