The Drones Club is a recurring fictional location in the stories of British humorist . It is a gentlemen's club in London. Many of Wodehouse's Jeeves and Blandings Castle stories feature the club or its members.
Various members of the club appear in stories included in the "Drones Club series", which contains stories not already included in other series. Most of the Drones Club stories star either Freddie Widgeon or Bingo Little. The club is initially introduced as a minor element in Wodehouse's 1920 novel Jill the Reckless; it subsequently appears with more prominence across many Wodehouse stories and novels. The Drones Club makes its final appearance as a setting in 1972's Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin.
The name "Drones" has been used by several real-life clubs and restaurants.
Overview
The Drones Club is in
Mayfair,
London, located in
Dover Street, off
Piccadilly. A drone being a male bee that does no work of its own and lives off the labour of others, it aptly describes the late 1920s to early 1930s stereotype of rich, idle young men, though some of the club members have jobs and even careers.
As decided by a vote of the club's members, the Drones Club tie is a striking "rich purple".[Wodehouse (2008) 1974, Aunts Aren't Gentlemen, chapter 4, p. 23. Aunt Dahlia and Bertie Wooster: "'Don't wear the Drones Club tie.' 'Certainly not,' I agreed. If the Drones Club tie has a fault, it is a little on the loud side and should not be sprung suddenly on nervous people and invalids, and I had no means of knowing if Mrs. Briscoe was one of these".][Wodehouse (2008) 1974, Aunts Aren't Gentlemen, chapter 19, p. 170. Bertie Wooster narrates: "I should have mentioned that in the course of these exchanges Cook's complexion had been steadily deepening. It now looked like a Drones Club tie, which is a rich purple. There was talk at one time of having it crimson with white spots, but the supporters of that view were outvoted".] A Drones Club scarf is also mentioned.[Wodehouse (2008) 1974, Aunts Aren't Gentlemen, chapter 1, p. 15. Bertie describes advising Orlo Porter to put on the scarf: "I directed his attention to the Drones Club scarf lying on the seat, at the same time handing him my hat. He put them on, and the rude disguise proved effective".]
Wodehouse based the Drones Club on a combination of three real London clubs: the Bachelors' Club (which existed around the turn of the century), Buck's Club (established 1919), and a dash of the Bath Club for its swimming pool's ropes and rings. The fictional Drones barman, McGarry, has the same surname as the Buck's first bartender, a Mr McGarry (Buck's barman from 1919 to 1941, credited with creating the Buck's Fizz and Sidecar cocktails). However Evelyn Waugh declared that the Drones did not resemble any real club in 1920s London.[
]
[
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A real club has been based at 40 Dover Street since 1893, The Arts Club. Other gentlemen's clubs which have existed on Dover Street but are now dissolved include the Bath Club, the Junior Naval and Military Club, and the Scottish Club, as well as two mixed-sex clubs, the Albemarle Club and the Empress Club. None of these were considered among London's 'premier' clubs of the kind found on St James's Street and Pall Mall, and so their ambience often had something of the raucous informality of the fictional Drones Club.
About a dozen club members are major or secondary recurring characters in the Wodehouse stories. In addition to Bertie Wooster (Jeeves stories), Pongo Twistleton (Uncle Fred stories), Psmith (Psmith stories), and Freddie Threepwood (Blandings stories), prominent recurring drones include Bingo Little and Freddie Widgeon, plus Monty Bodkin, Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps, Tuppy Glossop, Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright, Archibald Mulliner, and the club millionaire Oofy Prosser.
Events
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The Drones Club annual Golf tournament: A yearly golf handicap tournament that was held one year at Bingley-on-Sea.
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The Drones Club Squash Handicap: A yearly squash tournament. One year, Bertie Wooster was runner-up.
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The Drones Club Darts Tournament: An annual darts sweepstakes tournament held in February.
[/]
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The Drones Club Fat Uncles Sweep: An annual sweepstakes contest introduced by Freddie Widgeon.
Stories
Among the Wodehouse works, what was later dubbed the "Drones Club series" is a loose set of separate stories told by various narrators about members of the Drones Club. Many of the stories are told at the club or have some events happening at the club.
- Main canon
The main canon consists of 21 short stories (nine Bingo Little, eight Freddie Widgeon, and four other Drones, including the one introducing Pongo Twistleton and his Uncle Fred), as eventually collected in the omnibus:
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Tales from the Drones Club
[
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(1982) later The Drones Omnibus (1991)
The same set of short stories is also available in their original collections:
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Collected in Young Men in Spats (1936)
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"Fate" (Freddie Widgeon)
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"Tried in the Furnace" (Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps and Pongo Twistleton)
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"Trouble Down at Tudsleigh" (Freddie Widgeon)
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"The Amazing Hat Mystery" (Percy Wimbolt and Nelson Cork)
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"Goodbye to All Cats" (Freddie Widgeon)
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"The Luck of the Stiffhams" (Stiffy Stiffham)
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"Noblesse Oblige" (Freddie Widgeon)
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"Uncle Fred Flits By" (Pongo Twistleton with Uncle Fred)
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Collected in Lord Emsworth and Others (1937)
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"The Masked Troubadour" (Freddie Widgeon)
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Collected in Eggs, Beans and Crumpets (1940)
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"All's Well with Bingo" (Bingo Little)
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"Bingo and the Peke Crisis" (Bingo Little)
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"The Editor Regrets" (Bingo Little)
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"Sonny Boy" (Bingo Little with Oofy Prosser)
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Collected in Nothing Serious (1950)
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"The Shadow Passes" (Bingo Little)
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"Bramley Is So Bracing" (Freddie Widgeon with Bingo Little)
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Collected in A Few Quick Ones (1959)
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"The Fat of the Land" (Freddie Widgeon with Oofy Prosser)
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"The Word in Season" (Bingo Little)
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"Leave it to Algy" (Bingo Little with Oofy Prosser)
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"Oofy, Freddie and the Beef Trust" (Freddie Widgeon with Oofy Prosser)
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Collected in Plum Pie (1966)
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"Bingo Bans the Bomb" (Bingo Little with Freddie Widgeon)
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"Stylish Stouts" (Bingo Little)
- Additional novels
Six novels about the adventures of Drones Club Members as main protagonist:
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Money for Nothing (1928) – novel about Hugo Carmody and Ronnie Fish
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The Luck of the Bodkins (1935) – novel about Monty Bodkin with Reggie Tennyson
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Laughing Gas (1936) – novel about Reginald Swithin
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Barmy in Wonderland (1952) – novel about Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps
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Ice in the Bedroom (1961) – novel about Freddie Widgeon with Oofy Prosser
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Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin (1972) – novel about Monty Bodkin
- Related stories
Related are all stories about those Drones Club members already part of another series (Jeeves and Bertie, Blandings Castle's Freddie Threepwood, Uncle Fred and Pongo, Psmith, Mr Mulliner's nephew Archibald Mulliner), but more especially:
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The Inimitable Jeeves (1923) – Jeeves semi-novel, Bertie and Bingo, some events at the club
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Leave it to Psmith (1923) – Psmith and Blandings novel, also Freddie Threepwood, some events at the club
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Collected in Mr Mulliner Speaking (1929)
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"The Reverent Wooing of Archibald" (1928) – Archibald Mulliner and Algy Wymondham-Wymondham, starts at the club, told by Mr Mulliner
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Summer Lightning (1929) – Blandings novel with Hugo Carmody and Ronnie Fish
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Heavy Weather (1933) – Blandings novel with Hugo Carmody and Ronnie Fish, also Monty Bodkin, some events at the club
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Collected in Young Men in Spats (1936)
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"Archibald and the Masses" (1935) – Archibald Mulliner, told by Mr Mulliner
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"The Code of the Mulliners" (1935) – Archibald Mulliner, told by Mr Mulliner
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Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939) – Uncle Fred and Blandings novel, action started by Pongo, Horace, and Oofy at the club
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Cocktail Time (1958) – Uncle Fred novel, some events with Pongo at the club
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"Life with Freddie" in Plum Pie (1966) – Freddie Threepwood, some events with the club's barman
- Relatable story
Relatable is one story, which features the club and a Drone as a secondary character, and marks the first mention of the Drones Club:
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Jill the Reckless (1921) – novel, Drone Algy Martyn as secondary character, one chapter at the club
Many more stories simply include a Drones member in some scenes, or have mentions of club members.
- Not included
Not included are all identical stories published under other titles (in magazines or U.S. versions), or "recycled" stories, especially:
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"Comrade Bingo" and "Bingo and the Little Woman" (Bingo Little) – 1922 magazine stories merged into the semi-novel The Inimitable Jeeves (1923)
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"Quest" (Freddie Widgeon) – 1931 magazine story rewritten as "The Knightly Quest of Mervyn" (Mr Mulliner, non-Drones story, still featuring Oofy Prosser)
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"The Ordeal of Bingo Little" (Bingo Little) – 1954 magazine story rewritten as "Leave It to Algy"
[
]
– First-hand information posted by a Wodehouse fan.
(Bingo Little, included above)
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"Unpleasantness at Kozy Kot" (Drone Dudley "Biffy" Wix-Biffen) – 1958 "exclusive" story recycled
[
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for the U.S. edition of A Few Quick Ones (1959) from "Fixing it for Freddie" (Jeeves story)
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"The Great Fat Uncle Contest" (Bingo Little) – 1965 magazine rewrite of "Stylish Stouts" (Bingo Little, included above)
Eggs, Beans, and Crumpets
Most of the Drones short stories are also "Eggs, Beans, and Crumpets stories". These stories feature unnamed club members, each referred to as an "Egg", "Bean", or "Crumpet". This is allegedly based on the habit they have of addressing each other as "old egg", "old bean", or "my dear old crumpet", though characters in the stories almost never address other characters by these nicknames.
[There is at least one story with exceptions. In "The Shadow Passes", Bingo calls his friend Valerie Twistleton "old crumpet", and he calls fellow Drones Club member Horace Pendlebury-Davenport "old egg".] A few later stories introduce a fourth subset of Drones Club members known as "Piefaces".
Many of the Drones Club stories begin with these nondescript members talking about the latest exploits of Freddie Widgeon, Pongo Twistleton, Bingo Little, or another of their number. The story then transitions into a particularly well-informed Crumpet narrating the story as he tells it to an uninformed Egg or Bean:
- "Beau Widgeon?" said the Egg, impressed. "What ho!" A Crumpet shook his head. "You won't catch Freddie joining any Foreign Legion, once he gets on to the fact that it means missing his morning cup of tea. ..." (in "Noblesse Oblige")
- "... I allude, of course, to the Bella Mae Jobson affair." The Bean asked what the Bella Mae Jobson affair was, and the Crumpet, expressing surprise that he had not heard of it, said that it was the affair of Bella Mae Jobson. (in "The Editor Regrets")
- "He can't do that here," said an Egg, ... "Hoy!" he went on, addressing the Crumpet, who had entered as he spoke. (in "The Word in Season")
Wodehouse had already used this technique in the stories told by his Mr Mulliner, who refers to his anonymous interlocutors by the name of their drink.
Members
The total number of members is not established. At the Drones Club weekend in Le Touquet, France, were "about 87 members",
[Wodehouse, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, chapter one.] and not all of them crossed the Channel (such as Pongo Twistleton and Horace Pendlebury-Davenport).
- Confirmed Drones members include
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Samuel Galahad "Sam" Bagshott
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Charles Edward "Biffy" Biffen
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Monty Bodkin
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Godfrey "Biscuit" Brent, Lord Biskerton
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"Tubby", Lord Bridgnorth
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Frederick "Freddie" Bullivant
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Hugo Carmody
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Freddie Chalk-Marshall
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G. D'Arcy "Stilton" Cheesewright
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Nelson Cork
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Dudley Finch
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Ronald Overbury "Ronnie" Fish
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Boko Fittleworth
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Cyril "Barmy" Fotheringay-Phipps
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Tuppy Glossop
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Bingo Little
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Algernon "Algy" Martyn
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Archibald "Archie" Mulliner
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Horace Pendlebury-Davenport
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Judson Phipps
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Tipton Plimsoll
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Claude Cattermole "Catsmeat" Potter-Pirbright
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Oofy Prosser
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Psmith
[Psmith confirmed in Leave It to Psmith, chapters IV and VI.]
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William "Bill" Belfry, 9th Earl of Rowcester
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Adolphus "Stiffy" Stiffham
[Stiffham's membership is disputed (Reggie, op. cit.), but his short story "The Luck of the Stiffhams" is part of the omnibus canon (Hutchinson/London, op. cit.).]
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Reginald "Reggie" Tennyson
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Frederick "Freddie" Threepwood, likely leaves the Drones after moving to America
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Pongo Twistleton
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Hugo Walderwick
[Hugo Walderwick confirmed in Leave It to Psmith, chapters IV and V.]
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Frederick "Freddie" Widgeon
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Percy Wimbolt
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Ginger Winship
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Bertie Wooster
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Algernon "Algy" Wymondham-Wymondham
- Possible Drones members include
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"Chuffy", Lord Chuffnell
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Augustus "Gussie" Fink-Nottle
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Harold "Stinker" Pinker
- Club staff includes
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Bates (hall porter)
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McGarry (a barman)
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Robinson (a cloakroom waiter)
- Virtual Drones members include
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"Eggs, Beans, and Crumpets" (unknown narrator(s) and various nondescript members)
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Dudley "Biffy" Wix-Biffen (exists only in a non-canon, recycled story
Real Drones Clubs
Some real "Drones" clubs or restaurants exist or have existed, including:
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The Drones Club, a private club in Point Judith, Rhode Island (USA), was established in the late 1930s.
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A "Drones" restaurant existed in the early 1970s in London at 1 Pont Street off Knightsbridge.
[ The Renaissance Club, Directory, Restaurants, Drones] Previously a burger-and-fries, in November 2000 it was turned into a gastronomic restaurant by new owner and restaurateur Marco Pierre White.[ London Online, London Restaurants, Drones] This "Drones Club" moved to 12 St. George Street in Mayfair,[ Drones Club.com , official website.] and was purchased in 2004 by businessman Ben Goldsmith and turned into a members-only dining club. Membership included celebrity, peerage, CEOs and . This club closed in March 2007 due to losing its location to a restaurant.
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Another "Drones" restaurant, aka "Drones Fenwick of Bond Street", exists in London inside the Fenwick department store at 63 Bond Street.
[ Drones Fenwick.com , restaurant website.] It was linked to "The Drones Club" above.
See also
References, notes and sources
- References and notes
- Sources (members and stories)
