Regarded as one of the greatest literary humorists, PG Wodehouse produced over seventy novels and plenty of short stories over his long life. Originally serialised in early 1902, The Pothunters was his debut and it’s pretty much a straight story with occasional humorous flashes that hint at where his career was headed.

It follows the lives of a mixed batch of schoolboys (prefects and juniors) at the fictional public school St. Austin’s. Away from lessons, one of the key activities is sports, namely athletics, and it’s ahead of some running competitions – when the trophies are stolen – that the novel occurs.

This theft spins a mystery that allows the story to be loosely built around it. While suspicions, accusations, and investigations are underway, the book also deals with general life at the school, and the characters’ (all ‘By Jove!’, ‘Righto!‘ and ‘Jolly rotten!’) relationships and rivalries, as well as rule breaking.

It’s a decent enough read, capturing a “boy’s own” time with little real world threat underpinning it, though the case for expulsion is likely detrimental to one’s future prospects, an effect considered when the culprit comes to light.

For all his reputation as a humorist, this deep dive into the developing writer is a fairly functional tale, lightweight and punctuated with the occasional joke that may raise a smirk. But it’s thin gruel for those dipping in and hoping to sample something of his later genius.