{"product_id":"jeeves-and-the-british-empire","title":"Jeeves and the British Empire","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhat on earth has PG Wodehouse, the creator of the Inimitable Jeeves and the hapless Bertie Wooster, got to do with a serious topic like the decline and fall of the British Empire?\u003c\/b\u003e The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is Quite a Lot.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe British Empire depended on splendid show and display, but that made it very vulnerable to ridicule. No-one was better placed to provide it than PG Wodehouse, son of an extensive family of senior Empire servants, but whose life had continually been blighted and his ambitions thwarted by the ups and downs of Britain's Empire story.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eJeeves and the British Empire\u003c\/i\u003e tells the story of how Wodehouse used his comic creations to poke fun at those pompous stinkers who explored places and built Empires and then came home to bore everyone rigid with their tales of how they did it. From Baden-Powell's boy scouts to Sapper's imperial hero Bulldog Drummond - no Empire figure was safe from Wodehouse's leg-pulling.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhere Wodehouse led others followed. Film-makers and television producers took the hint and gleefully highlighted the absurdities of Empire. From the Boulting Brothers to \u003ci\u003eCarry On Up the Khyber\u003c\/i\u003e and the completely misjudged and misunderstood \u003ci\u003eIt Ain't Half Hot, Mum\u003c\/i\u003e, this book shows how comedy took its cue from PG Wodehouse and held Britain's Empire up for laughs. Some Empires end with a bang, some with a whimper; the British Empire ended in irrepressible giggling - and PG Wodehouse can claim much of the credit.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57503829000565,"sku":"9781350602175","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/jeeves-and-the-british-empire","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}