Totleigh Towers
Totleigh Towers is a recurring fictional location in the work of English humorist P. G. Wodehouse. It is a country house and the home of widower Sir Watkyn Bassett, his ward Stephanie Byng, and his daughter Madeline Bassett. Totleigh Towers provides the primary setting for several of the best-known tales in the Jeeves and Wooster canon.
Overview
In Wodehouse's fictional world, Totleigh Towers is situated close to the village of Totleigh-in-the-Wold, of which Sir Watkyn Bassett is the squire. Bertie's college friend, Harold 'Stinker' Pinker, is the curate of the village. Totleigh Towers is also the residence of Sir Watkyn's insipid, soupy daughter Madeline (who believes that Bertie is pining for her, when he isn't), his ward, Stephanie 'Stiffy' Byng, and the butler, Butterfield. Roderick Spode, the amateur dictator and close friend of Sir Watkyn, is also a regular guest.
Bertie has visited Totleigh-in-the-Wold on a number of occasions, including an instance in which he retrieved a silver cow-creamer for his Uncle Tom Travers which Sir Watkyn had stolen.
In the ITV series Jeeves and Wooster starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, Totleigh Towers was filmed at Highclere Castle.
Totleigh Towers saga
Four novels, published between 1938 and 1971, tell the story of Wooster's on-off engagement to Madeline Bassett and are together known as the "Totleigh Towers saga", though two of the four don't actually take place there. The four novels are, in order:
- The Code of the Woosters (1938)
- The Mating Season (1949)
- Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963)
- Much Obliged, Jeeves (1971)