Uncle Fred
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Frederick Altamont Cornwallis Twistleton, 5th Earl of Ickenham is a fictional character from the short stories and novels of P. G. Wodehouse.
His main talent is impersonation: in his time he has impersonated Edwin Smith, of 14 Nastursium Road, East Dulwich; a veterinarian come to clip the claws of a parrot at The Cedars, Mafeking Road, Mitching Hill; the resident of the same address; Mr. J. B. Bulstrode, a neighbor of same; and he claims he would have impersonated the parrot as well, on broad impressionistic lines. He can impersonate anything and anyone – except a circus dwarf, owing to his height (six feet), and Gina Lollobrigida, owing to her unique shape.
He has also masqueraded as Major Brabazon-Plank, the famed explorer, and as his older brother Brabazon-Plank Major, a mining engineer. (Hence, in the argot of the English public school, Brabazon-Plank Major is a miner while Brabazon-Plank Minor is a major.)
Furthermore, he has once taken on the identity of Sir Roderick Glossop at Blandings in order to resolve a series of complications, and did so with such elegance and style that no one else besides himself ever knew the full story.
His other exploits include shooting an old classmate's hat off with a Brazil nut and the precision of an Amazonian hunter, conning slow-minded Lord Bosham of his wallet just for the sake of it, and happily breaking up an engagement between his nephew Pongo and the ghastly Hermione Bostock. All of them have rendered said nephew in constant fear of his uncle, and permanently convinced him of his elder's lunacy.
Fortunately for Pongo, Lord Ickenham has been strictly instructed by his dear wife not to set foot in London, which greatly restricts his adventures to such times as when Lady Ickenham is absent.
The Uncle Fred stories comprise:
- Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939)
- Uncle Dynamite (1948)
- Cocktail Time (1958)
- Service With a Smile (1961)