Pigs Have Wings (Everyman Wodehouse)

As usual, the themes involve a satire of romantic love, miscommunications between the sexes, the vapid interests of the titled class, and the silliness of people in general.

As the book opens, Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth finds himself faced with a threat to the supremacy of his pig, Empress of Blandings, in the Fat Pigs class at the Shropshire Agricultural Show. Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, Bart, of Matchingham Hall, had already hired away Clarence's pig handler, George Cyril Wellbeloved . . . and Clarence is sure that some new skullduggery will soon follow. As the story develops, we find that it's all too true. Soon both pig camps are doing their best to knobble the other man's pig. With everyone else having a bet on the outcome, many other people are soon engaged in trying to sabotage one pig or the other. It's the most pignapping fun caper you can imagine!

In the background, we have all sorts of people who've become engaged to totally unsuitable people on the rebound from slights they feel from the one they really love. P.G. Wodehouse does a yeoman effort of returning all of those twisted loves to the proper party. The plot will keep you constantly chuckling throughout.

There are quite a few books based on the Empress of Blandings. So if you enjoy this one, go on to the others in the series.


Wodehouse is a comic genius, one of his finest examples.   November 13, 2001
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

The ninth Earl of Emsworth has it all good health, a large sum of money and a top notch ancestral home. But there is a fly in the ointment, Sir Gregory Parsloe. With the usual riotous affairs that earmarks Wodehouse as a true genius, you begin on a tale of miscomprehension and great hilarity for all, all the threads are untangled in the end and everybody is the better off for it. This book is truely a work of art, if you haven't read any Wodehouse than i envy you, i truly do. For you have all his worls laid out in front of you, ripe for the plucking.


Sublime   April 30, 2001
3 out of 5 found this review helpful

This (along with Heavy Weather) is probably the best of PG Wodehouse's Blandings Castle books. The plot is precisely the kind of thing PG Wodehouse does best- light as a feather, totally unrealistic and absolutely fantastic. It concerns Lord Emsworth's attempts to win the Fat Pigs trophy against the (almost entirely imagined) opposition of the nefarious gourmand Sir Gregory Parsloe. Vintage Wodehouse.