Stinker Pinker

The Reverend Harold “Stinker” Pinker is Bertie’s old college friend, a curate and an unusually useful rugby player.

Who they are

Harold “Stinker” Pinker is Bertie Wooster’s old college friend, a curate and a useful man on a rugby field. The Code of the Woosters brings him into the Totleigh Towers plot as Stiffy Byng’s intended husband. The nickname belongs to affectionate school and club usage rather than a verdict on his moral character. A man with a calling and a romantic hope has to negotiate the very worldly question of how he can afford to marry. Wodehouse turns the search for a vicarage into one of the pressures behind the comic manoeuvres.

Pinker is not a copy of the clever valet or of the anxious Bertie. He has a physical straightforwardness, and his rugby prowess is more than an incidental sporting ornament in the later account of his prospects. Readers can understand why Stiffy wants the match while also seeing why an uncle who controls an appointment can slow it down. The author’s balance between sincere feeling and absurd procedure gives this couple more texture than a simple obstacle course for Bertie to run on their behalf.

Personality and relationships

Stiffy’s plans can draw the curate, Bertie and Jeeves into the same web, though they do not all have the same information at the same time. Sir Watkyn Bassett is Stiffy’s uncle and guardian, as well as a formidable former magistrate. Bertie remembers a previous run-in with him and naturally resists a plan that might look like theft or deception under his roof. Pinker’s friendship with Bertie is therefore both a comfort and a potential inconvenience: an old friend can ask for assistance where a stranger could not.

In Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves the job question returns. The specialist annotation explains that Sir Watkyn refuses the desired vicarage, while Major Plank’s interest in rugby helps another possibility emerge. Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen refers to Stinker playing rugby as a vicar, and Much Obliged, Jeeves mentions the married couple. Those later references should be identified as such rather than counted automatically as full scenes. The book trail here follows the two central Totleigh novels and the later novel that the annotation identifies as a Stinker appearance.

Best books and memorable moments

Meet Stinker Pinker in The Code of the Woosters for the relationship and the household pressure. Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves is the next sustained story. Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen is a late Jeeves novel and a different sort of return, best taken after the earlier Totleigh books. These are recommendations, not a reconstructed calendar of every friendship. The linked page’s plot note keeps later solutions under a spoiler control, so a new reader can meet Stinker without a summary of the last chapter.

Simon Treves portrayed the Reverend Pinker in four episodes of ITV’s Jeeves and Wooster. The cast record identifies the performer and role; it does not make the television adaptation a direct copy of the books. Pinker’s place in print is a good example of how one practical issue, a living for a curate, can sustain a comic relationship across more than one novel.

Begin with The Code of the Woosters or Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves.

On screen

Simon Treves played Reverend Harold “Stinker” Pinker in four ITV Jeeves and Wooster episodes. Cast and production record. Compare Wodehouse screen, stage and radio versions.

World

His engagement to Stiffy Byng makes the question of a vicarage central to his future, especially when Sir Watkyn resists it.

Connections

Stiffy is his beloved; Bertie is a friend whom schemes may enlist; Sir Watkyn is Stiffy’s guardian and an obstacle to the match.

First appearance

Stinker first appears in The Code of the Woosters (1938).