The three Wodehouse brothers – Armine, Peverill and Pelham Grenville, known as Plum – in the late 1880s. Wodehouse's parents Eleanor and Ernest Wodehouse, a colonial civil servant, lived in Hong Kong and Wodehouse was largely brought up in London by his aunts. He wrote his first story aged five. When describing what he might have been doing before he was five, he wrote “Oh, just loafing, I suppose”.

Wodehouse was a distinguished classicist at his public school, Dulwich College, where he edited the school magazine, sang in school concerts and was a keen cricketer. He borrowed the name of his most famous creation, Jeeves, from the Warwickshire cricketer Percy Jeeves, who was killed in the first world war.

Wodehouse and his wife Ethel. As his writing career gathered steam, Wodehouse shuttled to and fro across the Atlantic. Having been rejected in the UK for war service because of his poor eyesight, he met a widowed Englishwoman, Ethel May Wayman. Following a whirlwind courtship of seven weeks, they were married on 30 September 1914 in New York.

Plum with his wife Ethel and daughter Leonora in Le Touquet, July 1924. The marriage brought Plum sustained happiness until his death nearly 61 years later. Ethel took over the running of the home and kept visitors at bay because she realised that they unsettled him. Freed from these burdens, his career immediately took off.

Wodehouse's career spanned over 70 years, during which he wrote 70 novels, more than 300 short stories, at least 20 plays, several film scripts, and the lyrics to at least 200 songs – many of them on this typewriter.

Wodehouse's beloved pipe collection helped fuel his enormous literary output.

Wodehouse was hailed by Evelyn Waugh as "the head of my profession".

Wodehouse sets out on one of his many journeys to America with his wife and daughter. During the 1930s, he had two brief stints as a screenwriter in Hollywood.

By the 1930s, Wodehouse was a celebrity across the English-speaking world. In 1939, Oxford University awarded him an Honorary DLitt in recognition of his services to literature. The following year France was overrun by German forces and, after a failed attempt to flee from his Le Touquet home, Wodehouse was interned as an enemy alien.

After the war the Wodehouses returned to live in New York, moving to Long Island in 1953. Up to the age of 93 Wodehouse was still doing his daily exercises, touching his toes without bending his knees.

Wodehouse, aged 90, at his typewriter in 1971. He worked 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year and refused to take holidays – a holiday, according to him, was writing a play or some lyrics instead of a novel.