There is not much that’s new, I think, in the release of the MI5 files on PG Wodehouse and his wartime broadcasts from Germany. The Guardian headline reads I was not a Nazi collaborator, PG Wodehouse told MI5 and, of course, Wodehouse told MI5 he wasn’t a Nazi collaborator because he was not, in fact, a Nazi collaborator.
Naive? Perhaps. Foolish? Certainly. But a collaborator? Don’t be ridiculous. And yet, one way or another this stuff keeps resurfacing even though you’d have thought Plum’s knighthood – delayed by the whiff of There’s Something Not Quite Right About Those Radio Programmes – might have settled the matter. If that weren’t enough then Robert McCrum’s masterly biography should have ended all doubts.
And yet perhaps there is one fresh wrinkle. I cannot recall if McCrum uncovered this dispiriting factlet:
[A] memo of a 1946 meeting between an M15 officer and the then director of public prosecutions, Sir Theobald Mathew, reveals that [Wodehouse’s] case was re-evaluated after the war.
Get Britain's best politics newsletters
Register to get The Spectator's insight and opinion straight to your inbox. You can then read two free articles each week.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in