Hot Water

Château Blissac, on its hill above St Roque, is in a setting where every prospect pleases. But it doesn’t please its current occupier, J. Wellington Gedge. Mr Gedge wants none of it – and particularly none of the domineering Mrs Gedge’s imperious wish that he should become American Ambassador to Paris. Instead he pines for the simpler life of California, where men are men and filling stations stand tall. Mrs Gedge has powerful allies – including the prohibitionist Senator Opal. But will she get her way? And will the Senator’s delightful daughter Jane get her man? In a plot which involves safe-blowers, con men, jewel-thieves and even a Bloomsbury novelist, few are quite as they seem. But the heady atmosphere of France in the 1930s makes for one of Wodehouse’s most delightful comedies.