Gwen Sheldon has stayed on the line to help me look at The Coming of Bill (1919, but really 1914), Also known as Their Mutual Child or The White Hope, it's a rare serious novel (though featuring some choice quips) with a plot supplied for Wodehouse by a helpful magazine editor called Bob Davis.
There will be spoilers.
Content note: discussion of eugenics, nazis, racism, death, and general bad times. (Surely some mistake? -Ed)
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Reference works consulted
Sophie Ratcliffe, P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters
Norman Murphy, A Wodehouse Handbook
Richard Usborne, Wodehouse At Work to the End
Daniel Garrison and Neil Midkiff, Who's Who in Wodehouse
Madame Eulalie's Rare Plums website
Other works by Wodehouse mentioned:
My Man Jeeves
The Man Upstairs and Other Stories
Bring on the Girls (with Guy Bolton)
Piccadilly Jim
Jill the Reckless
A Damsel in Distress
The Little Nugget
The Globe 'By the Way' Book
The Man With Two Left Feet and Other Stories
Also mentioned:
Bob Davis
Jack Johnson
James Jeffries
Wodehouse's adopted daughter Leonora Cazalet
Rembrandt van Rijn
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
L M Montgomery, The Blue Castle
Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events
Short musical snippets included or parodied:
Noël Coward, \"Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans\"
Dire Straits, \"Lady Writer\"
Helen Morgan, \"Bill\" (Wodehouse/Kern)
Elvis Presley, \"Old Shep\"
Nobuyoshi Koshibe and Katsuo Ohno, Theme from \"Mysterious Cities of Gold\"
The Gothic Archies, \"Scream and Run Away\"
\"Napoleon\" (Wodehouse/Kern)
Kimya Dawson, \"It's Been Raining\"
Kenny Carter, \"Showdown\"
The Seven Inches (my band) \"Our Gang of Friends\" and \"Bad Genes\"