Shed Sheds", which argues that a "place of retreat" is a "male necessity" which provides men with solace, especially during their retirement. In contrast, in the novel "Cold Comfort Farm" by Stella Gibbons, Aunt Ada Doom saw "something nasty in the woodshed" and retreated to her bed for half a century. To woodshed, or 'shed, in jazz jargon, is "to shut oneself up, away from the world, and practice long and hard, as in 'going to the woodshed'." The word is recorded in English since 1481, as "shadde", possibly a variant of shade. The word shade comes from the Old English
Jeeves in the Offing 2: "It was plain that I had shaken him. His eyes widened, and an astonished piece of toast fell from his grasp". The expression "in the offing", used in the novel's title for the UK edition, describes something that is likely to happen or arrive soon. The earliest extant notes for the novel, written by Wodehouse in November 1956, show that he initially planned for the plot to have Aunt Dahlia and Uncle Tom away in America, while Aunt Agatha and Lord Worplesdon were staying at Brinkley Court. This preliminary plot involves an American millionaire and the theft of the