Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright

Claude Cattermole "Catsmeat" Potter-Pirbright is a recurring fictional character from the Jeeves stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being a member of the Drones Club and a longtime school friend of Jeeves's master Bertie Wooster. An actor also known as Claude Cattermole on stage or Claude Pirbright from his birth name Claude Cattermole Pirbright, he has the nickname Catsmeat (i.e. lights - lung-based cat food).

Overview

Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright and Bertie Wooster went together to preparatory school, secondary school at Eton, then to the University of Oxford. He is the brother of Cora Pirbright, and engaged to Gertrude Winkworth, the daughter of Dame Daphne Winkworth.

His main role is in the 1949 Jeeves novel The Mating Season, during which Bertie Wooster and Gussie Fink-Nottle swap their identities, while Catsmeat pretends to be the faux-Gussie's valet Meadowes and Jeeves pretends to be the faux-Bertie's valet, before complications ensue.

Otherwise, he is usually the bit player who moves the action forward or tilts the story at the right moment.

Catsmeat is described as being "Brilliant, but unsound" by Bertie.

Stories

Catsmeat is featured in:

• "The Masked Troubadour" (1936) – Drone Freddie Widgeon short story, collected in Lord Emsworth and Others (1937)
• The Mating Season (1949) – Jeeves novel
• "The Shadow Passes" (1950) – Drone Bingo Little short story, published in Nothing Serious (1950)
• "Stylish Stouts" (1965) – Drone Bingo Little short story, collected in Plum Pie (1966)
• "Jeeves and the Greasy Bird" (1965) – Jeeves short story, collected in Plum Pie (1966)

Catsmeat is mentioned in:

• Right Ho, Jeeves (1934) – Jeeves novel
• The Luck of the Bodkins (1935) – Drone Monty Bodkin novel
• Joy in the Morning (1946) – Jeeves novel (chap. VII, X, XXV)
• "Freddie, Oofy and the Beef Trust" (1949) – Drone Freddie Widgeon short story, collected as "Oofy, Freddie and the Beef Trust" in A Few Quick Ones (1959)
• "The Fat of the Land" (1958) – Drone Freddie Widgeon short story, collected in A Few Quick Ones (1959)
• Jeeves in the Offing (1960, How Right You Are, Jeeves in the U.S.) – Jeeves novel (chap. IX, XV)

Actors

Film and TV

• John Elmes in the 1990-1993 British TV series Jeeves and Wooster (episode #15 "Right Ho! Jeeves" adapted from The Mating Season, season 3 episode 4, aired 19 April 1992 in the UK)^[1].

See also

• Drones Club

References

Sources consulted

• Reggie (2007-03-16 revision). "Wodehouse Who's Who: Claude Pirbright". Blandings, a Companion to the Works of P. G. Wodehouse. Archived from the original on 2007-07-22. http://webcitation.org/query?date=2007-07-22&url=http://www.blandings.org.uk/who/Pirbright_Claude.htm. 

Endnotes

1. ^ Jeeves and Wooster #15 (Season 3, Episode 4) at the Internet Movie Database

External links

• Hutchinson, Kyle. "Wodehouse Characters: Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright". The P. G. Wodehouse Story Index [database]. http://reasonablevoice.net/windex/character.php?name=138.  (last updated 2006-05-11)