It was Ye Olde Book shop at the beginning of Nevsky that was trying to conceal this volume from me, but I ran it to earth and stumped up the paltry sum of 100 roubles for the much-leafed through P.G. edition. As soon as I had it in my bag I was literally forced to put aside the book I was currently reading and dig into the golfing chronicles. Since – apart from Sir Pelham’s writings on the subj. – I am not over fond of golf, by the end of the book it wore me down a little, so you see there four stars instead of five. All the same, the stories do contain some of the author’s brilliantest jokes; from now on in my mind will live the Russian Brusiloff (“you know that is our great national sport, trying to assassinate Lenin with rewolwers… Some gameovitch!”) and England’s own Professor Orlando Rollitt (“controlling himself in spite of having long white whiskers”). Since some of his jokes have been on top of my mind for years, The Clicking of Cuthbert runs a fair chance of putting straight in.
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