Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps

Who they are

Cyril “Barmy” Fotheringay-Phipps is a Drones Club member whose first appearance is in “Tried in the Furnace,” published in the early 1930s and collected in Young Men in Spats. The story introduces a young man who can be swept into a theatrical and romantic difficulty with the cheerful readiness expected of a Drone. In the much later Barmy in Wonderland, issued in America as Angel Cake, the theatre becomes a novel-length stage for his fortunes. The link across these books is a character, not an argument that the collection is a prequel designed to explain every event of the novel.

His nickname is a particular bibliographical trap. Wodehouse uses “Barmy” for more than one person, and the specialist story index identifies Eustace “Barmy” Fotheringay-Phipps in a different version of “Joy Bells for Barmy.” That does not authorize merging Eustace’s appearance into Cyril’s direct book trail. The profile keeps the name distinction in view. A fan collecting every text with the word Barmy on it would encounter both a regional title and variant character identities; the individual volume guide is the place to check what a given printing actually contains.

Personality and relationships

The Drones Club provides Cyril with a broad social circle, but his plot does not require every familiar member to be onstage. In a short tale, a foolish impulse or a loyalty to a friend can determine the shape of an evening. The later novel has room for professional ambitions and the disruptions of an American theatrical enterprise. It is the difference in form that makes the return interesting. An amiable club man can be amusing in an anecdote and more vulnerable when a whole book asks how he will fare after the next reversal.

Bertie, Freddie Widgeon and Oofy Prosser are part of the same loose Drones world, yet a club membership is not evidence of a shared scene in every volume. The early collection includes stories belonging to other recurring figures. The book page’s contents notes are essential if a reader is following Cyril specifically. Barmy in Wonderland is a separate original novel, with an alternate American title; it is not an adaptation of every story in Young Men in Spats.

Best books and memorable moments

On screen

Adam Blackwood and Martin Clunes played Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps in different series of ITV’s Jeeves and Wooster. Cast and production record. Compare Wodehouse screen, stage and radio versions.