Ukridge

By: P. G. Wodehouse

Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil

If Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge had a fiver for every dodgy scheme he had ever floated, he would be a very rich man indeed. In these ten stories he tries every way of making money, from writing political slogans to opening a college for dogs. In his own eyes, Ukridge is a Great Man and a visionary. In ours, he is English literature's most delightful chancer and one of Wodehouse's greatest comic creations: charming, ambitious, persuasive, optimistic and almost always disastrous.

©2011 Copyright © the Trustees of the Wodehouse Estate. All rights reserved. (P)2011 AudioGO

Still has the make one LOL a century later

The stories are highly entertaining and the narration only adds to their excellence. A delightful reminder of a bygone era👌

this is book 1.

love amongst the chickens is book two. This is book one. If you're going to listen to this series, start here. This book is a collection of short stories, which makes a wonderful listen because you can finish each chapter in 45 minutes. And the next adventure is Loosely tied to the previous one

If You Like Jeeves & Wooster...

Love Among the Chickens is the first published novel featuring Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, an entrepreneur who dreams big and always believes he will strike gold with the next outrageous scheme he attempts.

I find the characters in Ukridge slightly less likable than Jeeves and Wooster, but the stories seem to have a bit more variety and depth. If you enjoyed the Jeeves and Wooster series, you will definitely find a similar level of enjoyment in this series.

LAtC (the title is too much to type out every time!) was the first published Ukridge book, but it happens chronologically after Ukridge (the second volume). I would recommend reading the second one first. Aside from the chronological reason, Ukridge is a series of short stories whereas this is one long story, so you get wider variety in Ukridge. But honestly, you can't lose either way.

In LAtC, Ukridge decides to start a chicken farm with some loaner chickens and drags a friend along with him to Dorset for the venture. His friend, Jeremy Garnet, is hoping for a bit of golf, but finds a particular and quite feminine bit of the Dorset scenery very much to his liking. Too bad Ukridge winds up this creature's father at first opportunity, causing a seemingly uncrossable gulf between the would-be lovers.

Typical Wodehouse. Witty, fun, and absorbing. Maybe not the best I have read, but I would definitely listen to it again.

Cats Aren’t Dogs. Cecil Isn’t Davidson.

I know I sound like an obsessive crank about this. But, as Wodehouse once wrote of Lord Tilbury after his first sight of the Empress of Blandings, once you’ve experienced a Wodehouse book read by the late, great Frederick Davidson, you wander forever after with a dull yearning, like men kissed by goddesses in dreams.

In other words, you can’t listen to the late, great Jonathan Cecil’s rendition of the same book without recalling how the late, great Davidson got just a little more comic juice out of that line. Or inflected that bit of description with just the right touch of sarcasm.

However, cats aren’t dogs, so it shouldn’t surprise us that Cecil isn’t Davidson. Like the above mentioned quadrupeds, each have their peculiar attractions, and this reading of Ukridge, being the only one available, is certainly attractive enough to be getting on with. After all, Wodehouse is still Wodehouse. And this particular effort ranks with his finest short story collections: Young Men in Spats, Eggs, Beans and Crumpets, The Clicking of Cuthbert and The Inimitable Jeeves. Like the latter title, these stories are linked together, making one continuous, unfailingly funny story.

Pure Genius. Hilarious!

Ukridge is a deepcut. This definitely not a book that made him famous but it's one that Wodehouse fans love.

This is easily the funniest non-Jeeves or Blandings collection. In my humble opinion it is his best collection of short stories. It is a non-stop laugher that chronicles one of the best cads Wodehouse ever created. The hijinks veer on the seedy without actually upending his usual style of screwball comedy.

This is definitely Wodehouse in fine form. A must read. And of course, Jonathan Cecil is as great as ever.

Enjoyable with one major flaw

Wonderful collection of stories by the inimitable Wodehouse. Performance is marred only by the consistently mangled pronunciation of Ukridge's middle name.

Ukridge is a jerk

Jonathan Cecil - the best Wodehouse narrator ever, but even he can’t redeem Ukridge, the Michael Scott of his era. Don’t bother with Love Among the Chickens, either.

Ukridge is a disgusting character

Was Wodehouse having a meltdown when he decided to create this Ukridge character? I give up.