No fusty relic, Jeeves makes a comeback

A reverential hush falls upon the library. "What did you do?" they demand, all as one, wondering what Robert Watson did when a suit left behind in a London closet was needed in Norway immediately?

"Well," intones Mr. Watson, a dapper middle-aged man leaning on the velvet chaise longue and tapping his spectacles. "I simply found the gray suit with the wide lapels in the London house, flew – business class – to Oslo, and hand delivered it myself." He raises his eyebrows and closes his eyes. The relief in the room is almost tangible. Yet another crisis averted by the master butler. "Simply brilliant," they gasp, and take a short tea break.

Butlers are making a comeback. Musician Puff Daddy has one. Financier George Soros has two. Singer Posh Spice is trying to lure one out of the Queen's entourage, and Madonna is reportedly interviewing madly.

More capable than the maid, more attentive than the secretary, and much grander than a 'personal assistant' – who, really, can do without a butler?

"You would be rather surprised by the number of people – Americans in particular – who like someone to answer their phone and say, "Hello, this is Spencer the butler speaking," says Ivor Spencer, the doyen of the butler school circuit, who opened his London institution 21 years ago. "In the US today" he confides, "the only real status symbol is a butler."

With the growing demand for such status – not to mention the extra help with laundry and car washing – no fewer than 39 butler-training schools have opened their doors in England in the past two decades, offering four- to eight-week courses. Almost all require some initial familiarity with the white-gloved service sector, and all cost around $1,500 a week. The various schools boast that, once trained, butlers should expect to find a position with a starting salary of at least $55,000 – a far cry from the meager £50 a year remuneration for butlers in Victorian England.

John, a top international butler who works at an exclusive resort and says he once received a $10,000 tip for a week's work, stresses, however, that it's not about the money. "I like to pamper people and provide the highest possible service," he explains. "You have to love it."

The list of potential disasters a butler must grapple with is, it seems, endless. What if you are yachting around the British Virgin Islands and there is no one to iron the linen table cloth in that special no-crease-down-the-middle way Madame insists upon? Or what if Madame's children, eating their asparagus with the hands, as is – mind you – permissible, fail to dip into the lemon finger bowl before the next course?

For answers to these and other questions, butlers head to class.

Seven butler trainees are spending this semester at the Guild of Professional English Butlers school at Hempsford Manor. Some are assistant butlers aspiring to the top, others are here to touch up on specific skills, and one is a Filipino houseboy whose wealthy German employer thought he needed some extra pizzazz.

The question being addressed in one morning class is: What to do when you are on vacation, you have just enough napkins for all the meals, and Madame decides to stay an extra day and host a luncheon for 12. The possible solutions are analyzed from every angle. The debate is fast and furious.

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