Psmith, Journalist

Bored during a cricket tour of America, the imperturbable Psmith takes charge of a limp little New York weekly called Cosy Moments and remakes it into a crusading paper. He and his colleague Billy Windsor go after the owners of the city’s worst tenement slums, and their campaign soon draws the unwelcome attention of gunmen and the politicians who protect them. It is one of Wodehouse’s rare excursions into something close to social reporting, folding real anger about slum landlords into his usual light, quick-witted comedy. Psmith stays cool through every threat, armed mainly with elaborate courtesy and a bottomless supply of nerve. Free to read here as a PDF and EPUB edition.