As other reviewers have noted, there is lots of cricket in this. As an American who is not much interested in sports, much of the details about batting and bowling escaped me. However, I did get a kick out of the boys' shenanigans. I was surprised to discover that Psmith had introduced the P in his name himself (because there were too many plain Smiths and he didn't like Smythe!). ( )

I'm working my way through a P.G. Wodehouse collection and the early works have been trying at times. The never-ending descriptions of sports at boys schools gets old. That was the case with this one as well. The first half was just one long tedious description of cricket. I don't know that I would have made it through the book had it not been for the appearance of PSmith in the second half of the book. PSmith is delightful, droll, clever and everything that Mike is not. He breathed fresh air into the book and the second half was a lovely, humorous, light-hearted fun little read. I would give the first half 1-2 stars and the second half a solid 4. Long live PSmith! ( )

Although it introduces the character of Psmith, this is a school story rather than a humoristic novel. Think Stalky & Co. rather than Leave It to Psmith. ( )

As other reviewers have noted, there is lots of cricket in this. As an American who is not much interested in sports, much of the details about batting and bowling escaped me. However, I did get a kick out of the boys' shenanigans. I was surprised to discover that Psmith had introduced the P in his name himself (because there were too many plain Smiths and he didn't like Smythe!). ( )

This is a public school boy tale mostly about cricket. The version I read included a first half focusing on the title character Mike Jackson, a cricket genius who is sent to the family public school. The second hald was the tale of Mike and Psmith, exiled from respective top schools to a lowly ranked one. I'd already read the Mike and Psmith tale (excellent fun) so stopped after the first half in this volume.
The story of Mike is less entertaining without Psmith, the brilliant troublemaker. Mike Jackson likes cricket, and if you don't like cricket, or have trouble telling a yorker from a googly, you make find this tale rather tedious. It has a certain charm, told with Wodehouse's characteristic phrases, but the drama around Jackson's chances getting his cricket colours didn't draw me in to the tale as deeply as the more compelling story of Mike and Psmith against the school in the later tale.
If you enjoy a good game of summer cricket, or better, if you enjoy reading about good games of summer cricket, this might appeal, otherwise stick with the Psmith tales, filled with more humour, more eccentric characters, and more compelling story. ( )