Ashe Marson

Who they are

Ashe Marson enters the library in Something Fresh, the first Blandings Castle novel of 1915. He writes detective fiction under the name Felix Clovelly, but an unexpected chance to enter the castle’s service gives him a much more immediate puzzle than the ones in his printed work. The novel was published in America as Something New and has consequential differences in the nationality and dialogue of Ashe, Joan Valentine and George Emerson. A profile should not flatten the two texts into an identical background for every character.

Ashe is a newcomer to Blandings, which makes him a useful companion for a reader visiting the place for the first time. He notices the hierarchy of a great household, the possibilities for investigation and the limits of his own expectation. The book’s scarab affair brings an object of great importance to one person into a house where its significance is not universally understood. Wodehouse had not yet made the Empress the centre of the castle’s world. Ashe’s perspective belongs to this first phase and need not be forced into a later pig competition.

Personality and relationships

Joan Valentine is his counterpart in the adventure, with her own intelligence and purpose. Lord Emsworth supplies the accidental starting point for the object’s predicament; Beach and Baxter represent two very different ways a large household notices what is happening. Freddie Threepwood’s interests add another strand. The ensemble gives Ashe plenty of people to misread or trust. A character page can tell us why he enters the castle, but its spoiler control should leave the discovery of motives and the outcome to the novel.

Ashe’s detective writing is more than a decorative joke. He is accustomed to inventing ingenious plots, then has to face a real scheme in which other people are not obliged to behave as his fictional suspects would. That difference gives the narrative an affectionate glance at its own form. The American and British variants change some of the words and background through which a reader meets him. The book guide explains the edition distinction and points to specialist annotations for a collector who wants to compare the texts.

Best books and memorable moments

On screen

Ioan Gruffudd played Ashe Marson in BBC Radio 4’s Something Fresh adaptation. Cast and production record. Compare Wodehouse screen, stage and radio versions.