The Pothunters When Jim Thomson went to collect his book of notes from the sports pavilion, where the silver trophies were kept, he found that someone had reached there before him. Someone who jumped with a thud on the ground and made his escape in the dark. This is one of a series of school stories, that P.G. Wodehouse wrote early in his career. Here he laid the foundation for all that was to come. He uses the setting of a boys’ boarding school to display the skill that was later to win him universal acclaim as a master of verbal ingenuity and the comic situation. The turn of phrase, the nonchalant description that provokes in- voluntary laughter, the skilled handling of plot are all evident here. As the early work of a literary wizard, these books are collectors’ items.