Summer Lightning
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Summer Lightning (US title:Fish Preferred) is the second book of the Blandings Castle series, written by P. G. Wodehouse and published in 1929.
The novel begins with Beach, the butler of Lord Emsworth, relaxing in the gardens that surround Blandings Castle, but being interrupted by Hugo Carmody, the Lord's personal secretary. Carmody asks him to deliver a message to Millicent, the Earl's niece. We also find that Galahad Threepwood, the Lord's brother, has returned to the castle to write his memoirs, which might discredit many important people, given his famous young-age adventures and follies.
Lord Emsworth has just taken up another hobby, of which he talks and thinks all the time: pigs, especially his Empress of Blandings, the precedent year winner of Shropshire's Agriculture Show, to the detriment of his neighbour, Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, the owner of the Queen of Matchingham.
In the tea conversation with Lady Constance Keeble, we find out that Baxter, the Earl's previous secretary, was sacked for throwing flowerpots into his employer's bedroom at three o'clock AM. Lady Constance insists in bringing him back, although the Earl is pleased with the current secretary, who allows him to have more free time than Baxter did. Lady Constance is also not pleased with Galahad's memoirs, as half of their friends will avoid them. She also hints that she does not want Millicent to have anything to do with Carmody.
A bit later, Hugo and Millicent meet in the garden and we find out that they love each other, but they're afraid of telling anybody as Lady Constance would most likely disagree.