The Gold Bat

The Gold Bat is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 13 September 1904 by Adam & Charles Black, London. Set at the fictional public school of Wrykyn, the novel tells of how two boys, O'Hara and Moriarty, tar and feather a statue of the local M.P. as a prank. They get away with it, but O'Hara had borrowed a tiny gold cricket bat belonging to Trevor, the captain of the cricket team, and after the escapade he discovers the trinket is missing. Schoolboy honour is at stake, and the book covers events that term including inter-house rugby matches and the appearance of a mysterious society called the League, as Trevor and friends try to get the gold bat back.

Wrykyn School would appear again in The White Feather (1907), and as the setting of the first half of Mike (1909); it would be mentioned occasionally in later Wodehouse works.