![]() “Here he laid a hand on my shoulder, and I can’t remember when I have experienced anything more unpleasant. Spode, who is clearly based on Oswald Mosley, is the leader of a militaristic fascist group called the Blackshorts (shorts because all the shirt colours had already been taken) and is inordinately fond of throwing his considerable weight around: Spode is a man whom Wooster describes as appearing “as if Nature had intended to make a gorilla, and had changed its mind at the last moment”. ![]() The crucial scene comes just over halfway through, after Bertie and his friend Gussie Fink-Nottle have endured 100 or so pages of intolerable bullying from the would-be fascist dictator Roderick Spode. Because this is the book in which Bertie Wooster teaches us one of the best and most effective ways of beating fascists: you stand up to them and you point out exactly how ridiculous they are. Or at least more vital than it has done since round about 1945. ![]() But here in 2016, it seems more vital than ever. ![]() The book would be worth treasuring for such writing alone. ![]()
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