In these troubled times, humour is an effective anti-dote to the kind of blues we face. Could there be anyone better than Plum to help us in keeping our sanity intact?
‘Haven’t you ever heard of Sister Lora Luella Stott?’
‘No. Who is she?’
‘She is the woman who is leading California out of the swamp of alcohol.’
‘Good God!’ I could tell by Eggy’s voice that he was interested. ‘Is there a swamp of alcohol in these parts? What an amazing country America is. Talk about every modern convenience. Do you mean you can simply go there and lap?’
Laughing Gas (1936)
We live in troubled times, eh what? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, that Evelyn Waugh chappie knew a thing or two when he said of Wodehouse: ‘He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own.’ I would be failing in my duties as a modern commentator if I didn’t observe that the captivity is looking every bit as irksome as Waugh predicted, and getting…
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ashokbhatia 
Suryamouli Datta commented thus:
I think, sir, I have been fortunate enough to read two more stories by two of my favourite authors based on the same theme. One is “Subarno Golok” (“The Golden Ball”) by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, and the other is “Ichchepuron” (“The Fulfilment of Wishes”) by Rabindranath Tagore.
Both versions are great in their own right. While Bankim Chandra’s piece is a satirical commentary on human behaviour towards gold, Tagore’s is a somewhat emotional exploration of what might happen if we were to take “The Road Not Taken.”
Plum, however, prefers to walk in his own way: no satire, no emotion, but the creation of a world where hilarity is the only possible emotion. Rgrds
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Suresh Subrahmanyan commented as follows:
Laughing Gas was the first novel I read of the Master. I must have been 10, if a day. The book was lying around at home, whence it came I do not know. It was the start of a love affair that is ongoing.
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