Fictional locations are places that exist only in fiction and not in reality, such as the Negaverse or Planet X . Writers may create and describe such places to serve as a backdrop for their fictional works. Fictional locations are also created for use as settings in role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons .
35-590: The Drones Club is a recurring fictional location in the stories of British humorist P. G. Wodehouse . It is a gentlemen's club in London. Many of Wodehouse's Jeeves and Blandings Castle stories feature the club or its members. Various members of the club appear in stories included in the "Drones Club series", which contains stories not already included in other series. Most of the Drones Club stories star either Freddie Widgeon or Bingo Little . The club
70-467: A Smile ) Fred visits Blandings to help Lord Emsworth with his woes: his bossy sister Lady Constance Keeble , his scary secretary Lavender Briggs, his obnoxious houseguest the Duke of Dunstable, and a group of Church Lads permitted to camp on the property. But Fred has his own motivation: Pongo's friend, a curate, is in love with Connie's wealthy charge, Myra Schoonmaker. Without meeting him, Connie decided
105-432: A continent or vice versa, rotate orientation, or combine two similar locales to get the best (for the story) of both. Uncle Fred Frederick Altamont Cornwallis Twistleton, 5th Earl of Ickenham , commonly known as Uncle Fred , is a fictional character who appears in comedic short stories and novels written by P. G. Wodehouse between 1935 and 1961. An energetic and mischievous old chap, his talent for trouble
140-417: A male bee that does no work, living off the labour of others, it aptly describes the late 1920s to early 1930s stereotype of rich, idle young club members, though some of them have careers and even jobs. As decided by a vote of the club's members, the Drones Club tie is a striking "rich purple". A Drones Club scarf is also mentioned. Wodehouse based the Drones Club on a combination of three real London clubs:
175-572: A panache only Gally himself could rival; he even avoids his wife's finding out he has left home while she was away (tending her sick mother in the South of France), despite the wrath of his niece Valerie. He has also masqueraded as Major Brabazon-Plank in Uncle Dynamite , the famed explorer, and as his older brother, a mining engineer. (In the argot of the English public school , the miner
210-470: A particularly well-informed Crumpet narrating the story as he tells it to an uninformed Egg or Bean: Wodehouse had already used this technique in the stories told by his Mr Mulliner , who refers to his anonymous interlocutors by the name of their drink. The total number of members is not established. At the Drones Club weekend in Le Touquet , France, were "about 87 members", and not all of them crossed
245-483: A poor curate was not an acceptable suitor and brought Myra away to Blandings to break up the romance. Fred employs his favorite strategy, bringing the curate along under an assumed name, and manages to unite the young lovers. Through various maneuvers he eventually alleviates Lord Emsworth's burdens. The novel Uncle Dynamite was adapted for television as part of the NBC anthology series The Philco Television Playhouse . In
280-470: A single room are kept out of the umbrella of fictional locations by convention, as are most single buildings. A fictional location can be the size of a university ( H. P. Lovecraft 's Miskatonic University ), a town ( Stephen King 's Salem's Lot ), a county ( William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County ), a state ( Winnemac in various Sinclair Lewis stories), a large section of continent (as in north-western Middle-earth , which supposedly represents Europe),
315-478: A troublemaker and dreads his trips to London. In an oft-referenced but never detailed anecdote, Uncle Fred once dragged his nephew Pongo to the Dog Races and was arrested within ten minutes of arriving ("I still say a wiser Magistrate would have been content with a mere caution.") In " Uncle Fred Flits By ", he involves Pongo in a complex situation involving someone else's house and a parrot . His main talent
350-513: A whole planet ( Anne McCaffrey 's Pern ), a whole galaxy ( Isaac Asimov 's Foundation books), even a multiverse ( His Dark Materials ). In a larger scale, occasionally the term alternate reality is used, but only if it is considered a variant of Earth rather than an original world. Austin Tappan Wright 's Islandia has an invented continent, Karain, on our world. However in fanfiction , along with pastiche and/or parody , it
385-564: Is Brabazon-Plank Major and the major is Brabazon-Plank Minor.) His other exploits include shooting an old classmate's hat off with a Brazil nut with the precision of an Amazonian hunter (in Cocktail Time ), and happily breaking up an engagement between his nephew Pongo and the quite unsuitable Hermione Bostock (in Uncle Dynamite ). All of them have rendered said nephew in constant fear of his uncle, and permanently convinced him of his elder's lunacy. In his last outing ( Service with
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#1732791216429420-516: Is allegedly based on the habit they have of addressing each other as "old egg", "old bean", or "my dear old crumpet", though characters in the stories almost never address other characters by these nicknames. A few later stories introduce a fourth subset of Drones Club members known as "Piefaces". Many of the Drones Club stories begin with these nondescript members talking about the latest exploits of Freddie Widgeon, Pongo Twistleton, Bingo Little, or another of their number. The story then transitions into
455-493: Is impersonation: by the end of this first outing, we hear of his having impersonated George Robinson, of 14 Nasturtium Road, East Dulwich (on the occasion of the trip to the Dog Races); a veterinarian come to clip the claws of a parrot at The Cedars, Mafeking Road, Mitching Hill; Mr Roddis, the resident of the same address; and Mr. J. B. Bulstrode, a neighbour of the same. He claims that, if given time, he would have impersonated
490-692: Is initially introduced as a minor element in Wodehouse's 1920 novel Jill the Reckless ; it subsequently appears with more prominence across many Wodehouse stories and novels. The Drones Club makes its final appearance as a setting in 1972's Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin . The name "Drones" has been used by several real-life clubs and restaurants. The Drones Club is in Mayfair , London , located in Dover Street , off Piccadilly . A drone being
525-562: Is not considered canon unless they get authorized . Within narrative prose, providing a believable location can be greatly enhanced by the provision of maps and other illustrations. This is often considered particularly true for fantasy novels and historical novels which often make great use of the map, but applies equally to science fiction and mysteries : earlier, in mainstream novels by Anthony Trollope , William Faulkner , etc. Fantasy and science fiction novels often also provide sections which provide documentation of various aspects of
560-665: Is one story, which features the club and a Drone as a secondary character, and marks the first mention of the Drones Club: Many more stories simply include a Drones member in some scenes, or have mentions of club members. Not included are all identical stories published under other titles (in magazines or U.S. versions), or "recycled" stories, especially: Most of the Drones short stories are also "Eggs, Beans, and Crumpets stories". These stories feature unnamed club members, each referred to as an "Egg", "Bean", or "Crumpet". This
595-430: Is the bane of his nephew Pongo Twistleton 's life. The Uncle Fred stories comprise one short story and four novels, two of which are set at Blandings Castle : Uncle Fred is a tall, slim, distinguished-looking man, with a jaunty moustache , and an "alert and enterprising eye". As a child he gambolled at Mitching Hill, his Uncle Willoughby's estate just outside London, which later became the suburb of Valley Fields ; it
630-400: Is under your control. Maps are an immediate necessity for some works, as they do not take place on Earth. Writers need working maps to keep straight at a glance whether the castle is north or south of the river, and how long it takes to get between valleys. This can be very helpful in preventing snags when dealing directly with fictional geography. Authors are as forgetful and absent-minded as
665-628: The Bachelors' Club (which existed around the turn of the century), Buck's Club (established 1919), and a dash of the Bath Club for its swimming pool's ropes and rings. The fictional Drones barman, McGarry, has the same surname as the Buck's first bartender, a Mr McGarry (Buck's barman from 1919 to 1941, credited with creating the Buck's Fizz and Sidecar cocktails). However Evelyn Waugh declared that
700-520: The 1981 BBC television film Thank You, P. G. Wodehouse . Scenes from Uncle Fred in the Springtime were adapted into an episode of the Blandings television series, "Throwing Eggs". While the episode does not feature Uncle Fred, Pongo does appear in the episode, portrayed by Mathew Baynton . The episode first aired on 16 February 2014. Uncle Fred is mentioned by his title, Lord Ickenham, in
735-527: The CBS anthology series Four Star Playhouse that adapted "Uncle Fred Flits By". The episode was originally broadcast on 5 May 1955. "Uncle Fred Flits By" was dramatised for television as an episode of the BBC television series Comedy Playhouse . In the episode, Wilfrid Hyde-White portrayed Uncle Fred and Jonathan Cecil portrayed Pongo. It first aired on 16 June 1967. He was portrayed by Ballard Berkeley in
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#1732791216429770-666: The Channel (such as Pongo Twistleton and Horace Pendlebury-Davenport). Some real "Drones" clubs or restaurants exist or have existed, including: Fictional location They may also be used for technical reasons in actual reality for use in the development of specifications, such as the fictional country of Bookland , which is used to allow EAN "country" codes 978 and 979 to be used for ISBN numbers assigned to books, and code 977 to be assigned for use for ISSN numbers on magazines and other periodicals . Fictional locations vary greatly in their size. Very small places like
805-744: The Drones did not resemble any real club in 1920s London. A real club has been based at 40 Dover Street since 1893, The Arts Club . Other gentlemen's clubs which have existed on Dover Street but are now dissolved include the Bath Club, the Junior Naval and Military Club, and the Scottish Club, as well as two mixed-sex clubs, the Albemarle Club and the Empress Club. None of these were considered among London's 'premier' clubs of
840-415: The club millionaire Oofy Prosser . Among the Wodehouse works, what was later dubbed the "Drones Club series" is a loose set of separate stories told by various narrators about members of the Drones Club. Many of the stories are told at the club or have some events happening at the club. The main canon consists of 21 short stories (nine Bingo Little , eight Freddie Widgeon, and four other Drones, including
875-425: The environment of the fiction, including languages, character lists, cultures and, of course, locations. In an online article on writing Dawn Arkin writes about the importance of location to the author's art: Setting has become a very important part of most novels. Creating a fictional location has many advantages for the writer. You get to name the town, streets, businesses, schools, etc. Everything inside your town
910-459: The episode, which aired on 29 January 1950, Arthur Treacher portrayed Uncle Fred. In the episode "Uncle Fred Flits By", adapted from the short story for the American television series Hollywood Opening Night , David Niven portrayed Uncle Fred, and Robert Nichols portrayed Pongo. The episode aired on 15 March 1953. Niven and Nichols again portrayed Uncle Fred and Pongo in an episode of
945-609: The kind found on St James's Street and Pall Mall, and so their ambience often had something of the raucous informality of the fictional Drones Club. About a dozen club members are major or secondary recurring characters in the Wodehouse stories. In addition to Bertie Wooster (Jeeves stories), Pongo Twistleton (Uncle Fred stories), Rupert Psmith (Psmith stories), and Freddie Threepwood (Blandings stories), prominent recurring drones include Bingo Little and Freddie Widgeon, plus Monty Bodkin , Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps, Tuppy Glossop , Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright , Archibald Mulliner , and
980-488: The lawns of Ickenham Hall as a child. His home is in Hampshire , where he lives quietly with his sponge Joyeuse and his American wife Jane, who at first permits him the occasional day or two in town, but later takes control of the family finances, leaving him only enough for "golf balls, self-respect and tobacco", and insists he stay in the country. This injunction comes as a relief to his nephew Pongo , who considers him
1015-447: The lesser breeds of humankind, and a simple precaution like taking a moment to sketch out a map helps prevent such errors and inconsistencies (upon which eagle-eyed readers are bound to swoop with gleeful cries, thereafter sitting down to write nasty letters to the poor author). Sometimes an actual geographic corner is used as a model for "getting it right", and identifying these can become a game for readers. Authors may turn an island into
1050-516: The one introducing Pongo Twistleton and his Uncle Fred ), as eventually collected in the omnibus: The same set of short stories is also available in their original collections: Six novels about the adventures of Drones Club Members as main protagonist: Related are all stories about those Drones Club members already part of another series ( Jeeves and Bertie, Blandings 's Freddie Threepwood, Uncle Fred and Pongo, Psmith , Mr Mulliner 's nephew Archibald Mulliner), but more especially: Relatable
1085-429: The parrot as well, on broad impressionistic terms. In Uncle Fred in the Springtime , when we next meet him, he cons slow-minded Lord Bosham out of his wallet just for the sake of it, and heads merrily down to Blandings Castle in the guise of Sir Roderick Glossop , with Pongo taking the role of his nephew and secretary, Basil. While there, he wraps up the affairs of Polly and her man, and Pongo's money worries, with
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1120-622: The third episode of the first season of Jeeves and Wooster starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. A radio drama based on "Uncle Fred Flits By" was broadcast on the BBC Home Service on 14 October 1939. The radio drama starred Cecil Trouncer as Uncle Fred and Philip Cunningham as Pongo. "Uncle Fred Flits By" was adapted as a radio drama in 1955, broadcast on the BBC Home Service, with D. A. Clarke-Smith as Uncle Fred and Derek Hart as Pongo. The novel Uncle Dynamite
1155-408: Was dramatised as a serial in six half-hour episodes for BBC Radio 4 in 1994, starring Richard Briers as Uncle Fred and Hugh Grant as Pongo. Uncle Fred in the Springtime was adapted as a radio drama in two parts in 2012 for BBC Radio 4, with Alfred Molina as Uncle Fred, and Matthew Wolf as Pongo Twistleton. Actor John Lithgow has performed a one-man show "Stories by Heart" which includes
1190-413: Was friends with James Schoonmaker, and his daughter Myra. In later youth, he became a member of the riotous Pelican Club , and a good friend of Galahad Threepwood , in whose stead he is occasionally called to Blandings , to help Gally's brother Lord Emsworth out of a jam. He was also close to Claude "Mustard" Pott, the prominent bookie , and was favourite uncle to Pott's daughter Polly, who sported on
1225-601: Was there that he shot the gardener in the trousers seat with his bow and arrow, and threw up after his first cigar. He was a younger son, and therefore not expected to inherit his present title; he spent much time in America, working variously as a cowboy , a soda jerk , a newspaper reporter and a prospector in the Mojave Desert , before a number of deaths in the family left him heir to the Earldom. While in America, he
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