Books
by Evelyn Waugh
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A Handful of Dust |
Re-reading this favourite, I found the 1930s a fascinating setting for the series of unfortunate events that take Tony Last from 'hideous' family seat in the English countryside to the Amazon jungle. Wife Brenda can't resist the lure of modernity and change; then personal tragedy ensures there's no going back. Despite London's feverish partying you can sense the changes and unease of the times, but it's deftly written: concise, humorous and a joy to read.
(Victoria Grey-Edwards - bwl 98 Autumn 2020) |
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Diaries of Evelyn Waugh |
If you enjoy one or more of The Sword of Honour Trilogy, you would almost certainly also enjoy his Diaries, particularly the parts covering his wartime experience on which he drew when writing his trilogy.
(Jeremy Swann - bwl 21 November 2003) |
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Scoop |
"Up to a point, Lord Copper" still peppers the conversations of close observers of the goings-on in Westminster and Whitehall. But how many people have read the Fleet Street satire where it originated? Returning to this slight novel after forty years, the plot now seems contrived and
somewhat silly. The occasional flash of high comedy reminds one why it was so popular when it was first published in the thirties. But vintage Waugh? Up to a point!
(Jeremy Miller - bwl 48 November 2008) |
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Sword of Honour trilogy* |
Loosely based on Waugh's own wartime experience, this exceptionally funny trilogy follows the fortunes of Guy Crouchback, scion of an impoverished English Roman Catholic family, who finds himself joining up as an elderly recruit in an unfashionable regiment at the start of the war. The futility and boredom of the phoney war is epitomised by eccentric fellow officer Apthorpe, he of thunder-box fame, and fire-eating Brigadier Ben Richie-Hook whose approach to soldiering is characterised by his repeatedly quoted expletive 'Biff biff!' Further adventures in Crete and Yugoslavia follow, introducing such characters as the disquieting Corporal-Major Ludovic and the farcical Trimmer who woos Crouchback's divorced wife by incessantly singing 'Night and day, you are the one' over the phone. These three novels are undoubtedly the finest of Waugh's later works, full of trenchant satire that does not descend into 'silliness' as in my view earlier works e.g. Scoop (qv) were wont to do.
*Men at Arms, Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender
(Jeremy Miller - bwl 117 Summer 2025) |
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The Sword of Honour Trilogy |
Men at Arms; Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender
After many enjoyable hours spent with Roy Jenkins's Churchill (bwl 12), it was an amusing contrast to go back again to Waugh's satirical portrait of an imaginary elderly young man called up for service in the second world war, the period of Churchill's greatest achievements. The story is punctuated by a number of hilarious situations with a handful of characters who must figure amongst the most comic figures in twentieth century novel writing.
(Jeremy Swann - bwl 21 November 2003) |
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