P.G's Tips

I've treated myself this week to a 'Week-End Wodehouse.' A collection of short stories from the master himself. There is an introduction from Hilaire Belloc, which sums up PG Wodehouse's writing beautifully. He says.
'His object is comedy in the most modern sense of that word: that is, his object is to present the laughable, and he does this with such mastery and skill that he nearly always approaches, and often reaches, perfection. To write prose so that your search for effect appears on the surface is to write bad prose. To write prose so that you get your effects by unusual words, deliberatley chosen for their oddity, is to write bad prose. To write prose so that the reader thinks more of the construction than of the image conveyed is to write bad prose.'
There are a lot of very famous writers who fall into the latter category, who win prizes and are lauded. The post modern, modern post modern style of literature has surely had its day and we can go back to storytelling, from gifted writers who write beautifully. Simples.