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 ) |
