Drones Club - Stories

Stories

Among the Wodehouse works, what was later dubbed the "Drones Club series" is a loose set of separate stories told by various narrators, which are either told at the club, or have some events happening at the club, or a club member for protagonist.

Main canon

The main canon consists of 21 short stories (eight Freddie Widgeon, eight Bingo Little, one Bingo and Widgeon, and four other Drones, including the one introducing Pongo Twistleton and his Uncle Fred), as eventually collected in the omnibus:

• Tales from the Drones Club (1982) later The Drones Omnibus (1991)

The same set of short stories is also available in their original collections:

• Collected in Young Men in Spats (1936)
  • "Fate" (Freddie Widgeon)
  • "Tried in the Furnace" (Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps and Pongo Twistleton)
  • "Trouble Down at Tudsleigh" (Freddie Widgeon)
  • "The Amazing Hat Mystery" (Percy Wimbolt and Nelson Cork)
  • "Goodbye to All Cats" (Freddie Widgeon)
  • "The Luck of the Stiffhams" (Stiffy Stiffham)
  • "Noblesse Oblige" (Freddie Widgeon)
  • "Uncle Fred Flits By" (Pongo Twistleton with Uncle Fred)
• Collected in Lord Emsworth and Others (1937)
  • "The Masked Troubadour" (Freddie Widgeon)
• Collected in Eggs, Beans and Crumpets (1940)
  • "All's Well With Bingo" (Bingo Little with Oofy)
  • "Bingo and the Peke Crisis" (Bingo Little)
  • "The Editor Regrets" (Bingo Little)
  • "Sonny Boy" (Bingo Little with Oofy)
• Collected in Nothing Serious (1950)
  • "The Shadow Passes" (Bingo Little)
  • "Bramley Is So Bracing" (Freddie Widgeon)
• Collected in A Few Quick Ones (1959)
  • "The Fat of the Land" (Freddie Widgeon)
  • "The Word in Season" (Bingo Little)
  • "Leave it to Algy" (Bingo Little with Oofy Prosser)
  • "Oofy, Freddie and the Beef Trust" (Freddie Widgeon with Oofy Prosser)
• Collected in Plum Pie (1966)
  • "Bingo Bans the Bomb" (Bingo Little with Freddie Widgeon)
  • "Stylish Stouts" (Bingo Little)

Freddie Widgeon

• Fate (Young Men In Spats)
• Trouble Down at Tudsleigh (Young Men In Spats)
• Goodbye to All Cats (Young Men In Spats)
• Noblesse Oblige (Young Men In Spats)
• The Masked Troubadour (Lord Emsworth and Others)
• Bramley Is So Bracing (Nothing Serious)
• The Fat of the Land (A Few Quick Ones)
• Oofy, Freddie and the Beef Trust (A Few Quick Ones)

Bingo Little

• All's Well With Bingo (Eggs, Beans and Crumpets)
• Bingo and the Peke Crisis (Eggs, Beans and Crumpets)
• The Editor Regrets (Eggs, Beans and Crumpets)
• Sonny Boy (Eggs, Beans and Crumpets)
• The Shadow Passes (Nothing Serious)
• The Word in Season (A Few Quick Ones)
• Leave it to Algy (A Few Quick Ones)
• Bingo Bans the Bomb (Plum Pie)
• Stylish Stouts (Plum Pie)

Other

• Tried in the Furnace(Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps and Pongo Twistleton)-- (Young Men In Spats)
• The Amazing Hat Mystery(Percy Wimbolt and Nelson Cork)-- (Young Men In Spats)
• The Luck of the Stiffhams(Stiffy Stiffham) -- (Young Men In Spats)
• Uncle Fred Flits By(Pongo Twistleton with Uncle Fred) -- (Young Men In Spats)

Additional short stories

Can be added the three interlocking Archibald-and-Aurelia short stories about Drones member Archibald Mulliner (the first one starting at the Club), also part of the Mr Mulliner series:

• Collected in Mr Mulliner Speaking (1929)
  • "The Reverent Wooing of Archibald" (Archibald Mulliner and Algy Wymondham-Wymondham, told by Mr Mulliner)
• Collected in Young Men in Spats (1936)
  • "Archibald and the Masses" (Archibald Mulliner, told by Mr Mulliner)
  • "The Code of the Mulliners" (Archibald Mulliner, told by Mr Mulliner)

Additional novels

Can be added five novels about the adventures of Drones as main protagonist:

• Money for Nothing (1928) – novel about Hugo Carmody and Ronnie Fish
• The Luck of the Bodkins (1935) – novel about Monty Bodkin with Reggie Tennyson
• Laughing Gas (1936) – novel about Reginald Swithin
• Barmy in Wonderland (1952) – novel about Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps
• Ice in the Bedroom (1961) – novel about Freddie Widgeon with Oofy Prosser
• Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin (1972) – novel about Monty Bodkin

Related stories

Related are all stories about those Drone members already part of another series (Jeeves and Bertie, Uncle Fred and Pongo, Psmith, Blandings's Freddie Threepwood), but more especially:

• The Inimitable Jeeves (1923) – Jeeves semi-novel, Bertie and Bingo, some events at the club
• Leave it to Psmith (1923) – Psmith and Blandings novel, also Freddie Threepwood, some events at the club
• Summer Lightning (1929) – Blandings novel with Hugo Carmody and Ronnie Fish
• Heavy Weather (1933) – Blandings novel with Hugo Carmody and Ronnie Fish, also Monty Bodkin, some events at the club
• Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939) – Uncle Fred and Blandings novel, action started by Pongo, Horace, and Oofy at the club
• Cocktail Time (1958) – Uncle Fred novel, some events with Pongo at the club
• "Life with Freddie" in Plum Pie (1966) – Freddie Threepwood novella, some events with the club's barman

Relatable stories

Relatable is one story, featuring the Club or Drones as secondary characters:

• Jill the Reckless (1921) – novel, Drone Algy Martyn as secondary character, one chapter at the club

Of course, many more stories simply include Drones member in some scenes, or being mentioned.

Not included

Not included are all identical stories published under other titles (in magazines or U.S. versions), or "recycled" stories, especially:

• "Comrade Bingo" and "Bingo and the Little Woman" (Bingo Little) – 1922 magazine stories merged into the semi-novel The Inimitable Jeeves (1923)
• "Quest" (Freddie Widgeon) – 1931 magazine story rewritten as "The Knightly Quest of Mervyn" (Mr Mulliner, non-Drones story, still featuring the Oofy stand-in "Alexander C. Prosser")
• "The Ordeal of Bingo Little" (Bingo Little) – 1954 magazine story rewritten as "Leave It to Algy" (Bingo Little, included above)
• "Unpleasantness at Kozy Kot" (Drone Dudley "Biffy" Wix-Biffen) – 1958 "exclusive" story recycled for the U.S. edition of A Few Quick Ones (1959) from "Fixing it for Freddie" (Jeeves story)
• "The Great Fat Uncle Contest" (Bingo Little) – 1965 magazine rewrite of "Stylish Stouts" (Bingo Little, included above)