<p><b>¿I love his writing, it¿s so clever and funny, so deft.'' Alan Titchmarsh¿s 6 Best Books choice (<i>Daily Express</i>)</b><br><br><i>A Blandings collection<br><br></i>The ivied walls of Blandings Castle have seldom glowed as sunnily as in these wonderful stories - but there are snakes in the rolling parkland ready to nip Clarence, the absent-minded Ninth Earl of Emsworth, when he least expects it.<br><br>For a start the Empress of Blandings, in the running for her first prize in the Fat Pigs Class at the Shropshire Agricultural Show, is off her food ¿- and can only be coaxed back to the trough by a call in her own language. Then there is the feud with Head Gardener McAllister, aided by Clarence''s sister, the terrifying Lady Constance, and the horrible prospect of the summer f¿ - twin problems solved by the arrival of a delightfully rebellious little girl from London. But first of all there is the vexed matter of the custody of the pumpkin.<br><br>Skipping an ocean and a continen