From Mayfair to Deventer, Kolkata to Remsenburg’s adopted cousins: the clubs that keep Plum in conversation — and the UK Society’s recent prizes for new writing.
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The P G Wodehouse Society (UK)
Essay competitions: winners and runners-up
Founded in 1997, the UK Society is the largest Wodehouse group, with the quarterly Wooster Sauce, walks, dinners, and a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey (2019). Alexander Armstrong is President; HRH The Duke of Kent is a Patron. In recent years the Society has run an international essay prize to put the work, not merely the life, back under academic lights.
Inaugural prize · 2023
Winner: The Reverend Fergus Butler-Gallie
Awarded the inaugural P G Wodehouse Society (UK) Essay Prize in London in February 2023. The winning adult essay treats night as a character in Wodehouse’s fiction.
A junior prize was awarded for an essay arguing that Jeeves and Wooster should be introduced to young-adult readers.
An honourable mention on Galahad Threepwood as a gay icon.
An honourable mention on the multimedia adaptations of A Damsel in Distress.
The panel was chaired by Sophie Ratcliffe (editor of P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters) and included Stephen Fry. More than fifty entries arrived from around the world.
Published 2024 as The P G Wodehouse Society (UK) Essay Prize: The Winners by Fergus Butler-Gallie, Anna Sanchez O'Brien, Dorothy McDowell, and Ashley D. Polasek (Can of Worms Press). The volume collects the winning adult and junior essays and the honourable mentions.
Myths are Such a Muddle Aren't They?: Semiotic Sabotage in the Novels of P G Wodehouse
Launched to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Wodehouse’s death, and open to everyone, everywhere. The prize was £750, chaired by Dr Becky Andrew. Entries ran from 1 June to 17 November 2025.
The Society announced Hoey as winner of the 2025 prize. Further placings and extracts are published in Wooster Sauce and on the Society’s essay-prize pages. The brief asked for 3,000–6,000 words in MHRA style, focused on the novels, stories, lyrics, plays, or journalism rather than pure biography.
The International Wodehouse Society idea goes back to a charter signed in the Netherlands by the English, American, Dutch, Swedish and Belgian groups. The circles below are the ones a new reader can actually join or write to.
United Kingdom · founded 1997
The P G Wodehouse Society (UK)
The largest Wodehouse society, with more than a thousand members worldwide. Quarterly journal Wooster Sauce, meetings, walks, and excursions. President: Alexander Armstrong. Patron: HRH The Duke of Kent. A memorial stone to Wodehouse was dedicated in Westminster Abbey in 2019.
The oldest continuing Wodehouse society, founded by William Blood. Regional chapters across North America, a journal (Plum Lines), and a biennial convention — the 23rd meets in Garden City, New York, in November 2026.
Founded on Wodehouse’s hundredth birthday and still one of the most active societies in Europe. Newsletter Nothing Serious; English pages and research resources on the site. Email: [email protected].
The Swedish Wodehouse Society publishes the journal Blandings Blandning and a yearbook, Jeeves. Further Swedish-language research is collected at Tomas Prenkert’s sites.
Maintained by Mikhail Kuzmenko. The site remains a major bibliography and chronology, with a short English section, even if formal society activity has quietened.
India has long been one of Wodehouse’s most devoted readerships. Informal circles include Blithe Spirits in Kolkata and a Delhi group; there is no single national website, but the books have never gone out of fashion.
Pakistan
P. G. Wodehouse Society of Lahore
A Lahore circle associated with The Last Word bookshop, flying the Drones flag in Pakistan.
Scattered readers rather than a large formal society, often in touch with TWS and the UK Society. Wodehouse’s cricket and school stories have a particular following.