Posted by Jenny Berki on May 21, 2007 at 19:54:09 from 77.98.7.42 user JennyB.
In Reply to: Drinks Menu posted by John Wilson on May 20, 2007 at 10:11:38:
From John Wilson - ML - CF says he was in police court after Boat-Race night, when Oxford won for once (Chapter 16, Cape page 212)
Has anyone else come across this apparent coincidence? I have known for about thirty years that I had read a “policeman’s helmet on Boat Race night” episode somewhere other than Missee Lee – and as luck would have it, I stumbled upon it last night. It’s in The Code of The Woosters by P G Wodehouse. Page 7 in my Penguin edition has Bertie Wooster saying:
“I spoke with strong feeling, and I’ll tell you why. A few months before, while celebrating Boat Race night, I had fallen into the clutches of the Law for trying to separate a policeman from his helmet, and after sleeping fitfully on a plank bed had been hauled up at Bosher Street next morning and fined five of the best.”
The Code of The Woosters was published in 1938. Missee Lee was published in 1941. I wonder did AR lift this idea (intentionally or otherwise) from P G Wodehouse?