I liek your analogy to Cole Porter, since most PGW books are et at about the same time, except they are in England. As one critic observed, "PGW's idyllic world will never stale..".
I have read almost all his books as a kid, and still occasionally read them. The closest modern analgy to PGW I have seen is the brilliant TV show; Seinfeld.
A similar idyllic world created in MAnhattan, with its own set of mores and characters, the parallels to PGW's world is striking!
-akhilesh