The Empress of Blandings

Who they are

The Empress of Blandings is Lord Emsworth’s prize Berkshire sow, first mentioned in the 1927 story “Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey!” and collected with other castle stories in Blandings Castle and Elsewhere. She is more than a convenient excuse to put a pig on a book cover. Clarence’s attachment to her gives the Fat Pigs class at the Shropshire Agricultural Show emotional weight, however improbable the intensity may seem to visitors with other concerns. A feeding problem or a rumour about her whereabouts can draw half the household into action.

Something Fresh introduces the castle in 1915 before the Empress becomes its familiar centre. A reader wanting the pig in an established ensemble might choose Summer Lightning or Pigs Have Wings. Those books differ in company and plot; their shared animal does not make them repeated tellings of one competition. The specialist annotations distinguish the early magazine stories, later collection dates and the regional forms. The Empress is a character with recurring narrative importance, even though a human style of dialogue or “actor” credit would be absurd to assign her.

Personality and relationships

Clarence cares for her welfare and prizes her successes. His neighbour Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe has a rival interest in show pigs and becomes a natural object of suspicion. A pig-man’s practical knowledge, Beach’s household discretion and the younger generation’s unrelated schemes can all collide when the Empress is at risk. The reader can admire Lord Emsworth’s tenderness while recognising that visitors may see a contest in which they did not mean to compete. The joke has consequences for how the castle’s people treat one another.

In Summer Lightning a disappearing pig is entangled with Galahad’s manuscript and the romantic affairs of younger guests. Heavy Weather returns to the manuscript and the animal, while Pigs Have Wings makes the neighbouring pig rivalry especially prominent. A collection can include one or several Empress stories without being a continuous novel about her. Her direct book trail below is a reading map to be checked story by story; it does not treat every Blandings title or offstage mention as proof of an onstage appearance.

Best books and memorable moments

On screen

The Empress is represented in BBC One’s Blandings (2013–14); no animal performer is identified without a verified credit. Cast and production record. Compare Wodehouse screen, stage and radio versions.