Rupert Baxter

Rupert Baxter is a fictional character who appears in several of the stories and novels of P. G. Wodehouse. Often called The Efficient Baxter, he is a secretary and an expert on Egyptian scarabs, wears rimless spectacles, suspects everyone of being an impostor, and is, as his epithet suggests, extremely efficient.

Baxter first appears in Something Fresh as Lord Emsworth's secretary at Blandings Castle: a man perfectly suited to his job, he "had no vices, but he sometimes relaxed his busy brain with a game of solitaire." However, in Leave it to Psmith, when he becomes locked out of the castle wearing yellow pyjamas in the early morning and throws flowerpots at Emsworth's bedroom window in an attempt to wake him, Emsworth decides he is insane and sacks him, replacing him with Ronald Psmith. Baxter reappears in Summer Lightning in the employ of Horace Jevons, a Chicago millionaire, while Hugo Carmody occupies his former position at Blandings. Carmody mentions him in passing in Heavy Weather as having "left ages ago".

Despite his being sacked, he longs to organize the affairs of the absent-minded Emsworth, and he returns briefly to Blandings in "The Crime Wave at Blandings", a story from Lord Emsworth and Others, as a prospective tutor for George, Lord Bosham's second son and Lord Emsworth's grandson. However, when Beach, the Blandings butler, shoots him in the hind parts with George's air gun, he is cured of his longing and decides to leave Blandings permanently to work for Mr. Jevons.

References

• Kuzmenko, Michel (2005). "Bibliography." The Russian Wodehouse Society. Accessed on January 6 2005.
• Usborne, Richard (2003). Plum Sauce: A P. G. Wodehouse Companion. New York: The Overlook Press. pp. 98–99. ISBN 1585674419.
• Wodehouse, P. G. (1924). Leave it to Psmith. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 190–194. ISBN 1585672777.
• Wodehouse, P. G. (1915). Something Fresh. London: Penguin Books. pp. 58. ISBN 0140284613.