Evelyn Waugh
THE CHÌNA^ MAIL," MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1955..
THE NOVELIST WHO
T
DOESN'T CARE
By LES ARMOUR
HERE is no explana- commend it.. Yet he became Of all the living novelists who can
tion for Evelyn a Commando in World War
D
Waugh. The son of II, fought in Crete, went to capture audiences of millions almost as a solid middle-class Tito's aid in Yugoslavia, matter of course, Evelyn Waugh is almost publisher he holds firmly and probably did as much that the aristocracy is the and risked as much in the certainly the most bewildering as a per- sole repository of social cause of democracy as any sonality. That he is also one of the greatest value. An admirer of Mus- man in England.
goes without saying. And, now that he solini during the Ethiopian War and
A converted Roman appears to have abandoned wit and satire supporter of 26 Franco against the Republi- Catholic, he retained, in his cans, he has never regarded writings, the bitter, almost for deep and mellow character analysis, toward the bewilderment caused by his per- democracy as a form of sneering, attitude government with much to humanity of a nihilist.
sonality cries out even more for study. But strangest of all, per- haps, is the New Waugh-
of ti wider scheme of the satirist and the humorist values which has held him ever whose work has lost most of since. its acid and nearly all its frolicking fun.
Britain Entering An Autumn of Abundance
W
E
By WILLIAM BARKLEY
London. In some parts this summer were an all-thue record, valued
three it has been
His last two-volume novel, "Men and Arms" and "Officers and
part
in
1116
other experiments directions Brideshead Revisit. ed" and the current two-volume work-are an effort to And an alternative, "Brideshead Kem visited" was u
successful experi
aces a world of chaos which home hably not begrudge
心
He is convinced of the valite of the aristocracy because he attributes, to a large extent, to the reduction of values to their denominator. lowest common Gentlemen" He saki at
the Line of his (the latter just published)
conversion that the attrnellon lon has won little but abuse from of the Church Jay in the fret the critics.
the It is tot
that it was the founder of the civilisation work of
vahies of Western the Waugh who
and that, without Christianity. the whole of civilisation ផង់ wrote "Decline and Fall," Vile Bodies," and "Scoop."
bound to collapse. It is a solitary biot on this but of the Waugh who wrote wonderful record that to main "Brideshead Revisited." The Cadi The Industriei bustle of
new work, though, has lost This splendid harvest will be Britain we had to import 8.000,- much of the subtle pathos of the sound bisl f our health 000 tons of coal,
Is there then a shortage of "Brideshead Revisited," in and prosperity for 12 months to
coal? Not Where the granaries are conc
bit. We have parts, the critics think, it abunkiant coul, except that it almost gets blown away full and the beasts are content-
in the right places, with its own wind. ed you have a nation strong in But atounding food is only beginning of Britain's harvest this wonderful year.
are entering an high and thick J
abun { autumn dance. We should approach it with joy and thankfulness in our hearts,
He would be an expert could mathematician who count the blessings of the British people today,
Return d hellday -makers adjusting themselves THW 14 the year's labost their minds oge
picture of
Carry Mi
unforgettable
the poll summer
I was painted as they sped through the Belds to cous! ur mountain. Pleural felds
Terrie Us hus ever
been known near the sour old will reas
heart and sound in stomach.
The workshops
£284 million. al
iN
lime
being underground at a when we want more of it above ground.
Who is going to belleve that the brilliant ingenious British people cannot solve that te problem in transplantation?
Or
It
OOK at the steel harvest.
will top 20,000,000 tons this brimming over the hedges with year for the first time in British
rich grin.
It
history, extceding that
by probably half a million.
figure
Is there then abundant steel? No! Never! Yet that is not all
Prakse be. The only Searchly In Britain toxluy is rabbity. Now experts are assessing product of the pust-free harvest nided as it was by the splendid
The
bad
"For the suke of the British thank goodness steel reonomy
sus Ir is anything from 700,000. Is scarée," a steet man exploded
to 1,000,000 Fotter ALOTE prain in mic. "It shows that every-
than last year.
More grain
ventning
Amm-
CHREWD eyes were
felds in very district white the grain was standing. pling and estimating the yield. These figures were collected at headquarters in London and a national culated.
average Wis
cal-
A REBEL
is hard to resist the con- must
IT viction that there
If we have the wrong people
The
wrong organisation to really be two Waughs. do i we had better get the right ones quick and stop play- If all that sounds harsh. ing silly fools with ourselves,
In the mines as elsewhere it 1s the men, not
it is probably just because
the jobs, that it is only part of the story. are scarce. What an abundance Skeletona are necessarily of jobs there are in Britain!
NO
Wages rise
bony.
There Is по explaining Waugh; bul there may
be
an understanding of Waugh.
rebel, It is
thing is going great guns. anost encouraging that the steel Industry is
being stretched the limit all the
time. "Steel output has increased by 1,000,000 tons a year for
Next yers, many
21,500,000 23,000,000 tota by 1058. let's hope it is not enough!"
This steel consumption reflects abusart harvests in the work-
jalas at
year tonis
11
NOTHING has ever been known 10 the twenties he was
like it, with 22,945,000 men,
Not a political rebej or women, boys and girls in civil Even a literary rebel, but 41
д to employment, quarter of moral rebel; a rebel against the the million more than a year ago. artificiality, the tinsel,
Wages for the industrial jobs forced galety and, above all, the are indexed at 158. That is to absence of any fixed standard of
have wa say, they
risen 33 per-values. seven years, which in "Decline and Fall," his Orsi and gent in And three percent faster than prices novel, was a satire on the age, have risen. The wage rise this the novels which followed were year alone for nearly 11,000,000 merely further episodes in the industrial workers has beensame satire.
But negative criti- £4,200,000 a week.
cism never satisfied him.
He turned to the Roman Catholic Church, but that was
In the last seven years shops. Drilish industrial production has The result shows bounty gone up by one-half.
Every Krain.
aboundinu.
dition.
Loo
orifer-books
To pass eround these abundant earnings the nation's note circulation is at a peak for this time of the year. With a note circulation today of £1,781
there million,
00,000,000 more of these slippery pieces of from-me-to-you paper
going than there were a year ago,
turn out to be
THEY
arc
The savings
of
Other values might other civilisations, bu! could not sustain this one.
and the critics should mudes him one
unsuccessful experiment even if, "Men after proper digestion, and Arms" and "Officers and Gentlemen" should turn out lo be entries on the debit side.
There is no telling where he will go from here, But that there will be more experiments, there is little doubt.
buti
they
52.
Waugh, after all, is sull only
And the particular value of NO LOVE
Catholle Church, the Roman he insisted, lay in its univer. sality, and in its authoritarian organisation, which assured E united front and a preserva- of two centuries ago in tion of the basic values house In Gloucestershire. unadulterated.
MEANWHILE,
Mule of the country squire
he lives
the
his
There, other sides of character como to light,
פות
There
In the thirties he travelled to Ethiopia, to British Gulans, a gentle humour in the pre- through the Mediterranean, and servation of a wash-stand built William Burgey, the nine- to everything he saw he turned by
teenth
who century architect his biting humour.
designed the, revival Gothic Cork Little
in wonder, the cir- Cathedral. cumstances, that he should turn
to the past for his inspiration There, too, are signs of his and his values, and
little biting social commentaries: to a wonder that he should take on pair of paintings depleting the authoritarian view in politics joys of travel in 1750 und 1850 and in social values.
EXPERIMENTS
even
the he hos added-painted in same style to his own Instrate- tions—a painting of an plane crash in 1951.
acro
throws
him.
He dislikes publicity, QUALLY, little wonder that, out reporters on sight, and con- if he did support tinues to show no love for the
which supports Christian civilisation under the public guise of Mussolini's and Fran- Even in his latest novel, every- co's Fascism, he should tan and body but the aristocracy comes fight when it was clear that off rather badly (though, in takes a swipe at ruthlessly Hitler was
under- fairness, he mining the whole
of the aristocracy, too). array Christian values.
to
There is s no sign that the Nor ought we, perhaps, public will ever reciprocate. there is be amazed that he should find But, disconcertingky, satire an inadequate vehicle for no sign that Mr Waugh would his thoughts.
care if they did.
Commonwealth And
Conservative
WHY
CUMMINGS
FLEW TO
AMERICA
LAST NIGHT
:
Cummings left London yesterday for П tour of America. This is Cummings's first visit there.
✰
But through his work he is no stranger to American journals. In news maga- zines and other periodicals Cummings is now among the most widely "quoted of British cartoonists.
*
★
The trip he plans covers Amerlen in many aspects Hollywood BLS well 1.5 Washington: New Orleans as well as New York.
★
★ ★
His notebook is open to all he secs 15 the Journey develops. though, as you see below, he has SOME pre- conceived notions on the purpose of the trip....
Why I'm going, says Cummings,
is to find out...
are
The
Conference
By HAROLD JAMES
London. branches throughout
the
growing aere in England and
The shipyards Wales has given us this year about two ewt. more than in the podlod 1950-1954.
THIS year alone it is up 7 per No one
Asi ne this figure doubts that These cautious estimates ure much covers the ever-famentable fall below the fact. Reports come of 3.000.000 tons in the coal In of 55 and 80 evt. per mere hervert it is certain that expan being reaped in minny places, slon in general manufacturing three times the national average irustries w
circulate in shops and probably unequalled the even percent,
packed to the cellings with world.
Every shipbuliding yard is desirable edibles and wearables,
Perhaps the best way of them buy more The crop
You read with regret of Some has a lower full,
But the tbundant boer, 80,000 barrels water content than usual and orders going abroad.
monedh be to was gathered in perfect con- persimmlets who predicted short more than last year. Many aro
ita history found a place in our monwealth would be to see that have been
National put by for the future. Con
schemo of education. Indeed, foursted The shipyards are savings are up £125 million
the Tory party in their election Pretched to capacity. What over last year, The richness
more can they do than their Abundance
of work, abun
that "the story of our Empire. most?
dance of money, ibundance of
should figure more prominently Aa for motor vehicles, 1,250,- goods and foods. What a happy
in the teaching in our schools,"" THEN nearly 10,000,000 cattle 000 will roll from the factories Britain it is. THEN
and Move! than 21,000,000 this year,
A sad, bad phrase was com-
But, alas for good intentions! sheep and
In Docs that mean abundance of mon in the sad, bad days of The main preoccupation The one itely to be chosen The promise was made before our helds and on our hills to- motor-cars? Maybe not for the depression. Wo were said to of the electorate at the for debate is, at least, the most the dimeuitics were probed. day, and the number will sure- insatiable home market. But to starving in the midst uf moment is the cost of living, "meaty" of the lot. It urges In the ovent, it turned out that ly rise as farmers gain con- they play their part in what we plenty. Rejoice that this
of Educa- fidence in the new richness of ciso nced-abundance of exports. autumn we are eating and eating and out of 292 resolutions the government to embark upon the school curricula are settled
And British exports Inst month well, in the midst of abundance, sent up by Conservative bolder and more imaginative not by the Minister
policy of strengthening our tion but by the county educa- economic and traditional ties tion authorities. They fre with the Commonwealth and
stubborn and disinclined .for Empire."
changes. "What has always been taught is safe" la their line.
lambs browse
rabbit-free grass.
THE first of the annual country nearly 50 are con- conferences of the poll- cerned with taxation, living tical parties the Conser- costs and pensions. vative Party conference at Interest in Commonwealth manifesto in 1951 undertook Bournemouth on October 6 and Empire has waned, for only promises to be a dull seven resolutions find a place in the order paper, most of an affair all round.
anadyne nature,
men of few words say
Pink Plymouth please
and cam the respect of all who appreciate
that REAL pink gin should be prepared with PLYMOUTH GIN.
But, do be sure it is
PLYMOUTH GIN
Bola Apontez ‚·
CALDEEGKU -MACORECOR • CO, LTD.
TORY CONSCIENCE
What is likely to capture the Imagination remains to be seen; but unfortunately, the "imagina- tive" policles put up to these conferences are too imaginative to be practical.
But the second part of the resolution is calculated to prick
the Tory conselenco, for it onlis
on
Nevertheless, It in every council in Britain county energetic steps were taken to bring home to the educationists the need for teaching Empire history in the schools, soïne- thing might be achieved,
MORE DIEHARD-
Here, anyway, the Conserva- associations
all constitueneles "to com- tivo constituency
monce a virile campaign to
arouse the interest of the elec- might get something done. orato in Commonwealth Empire affairs."
7
and
It is sad that the party claim- ing to be "the party of Emping should have to be whipped up in this way.
to
There would still remain the public schoola to be converted. By and large.. they are more dichord than the local education authorities when it comes changing teaching schedules, and most would still regard Latin Verve as more important than,
ay, Rope Relations.
But whatever West Indian immigration has done, it has ti But it is the headmaster who least brought home to many docides, and there are some who Belton "how.colomual is their are young enough to realise the Kanarmaco of the territories importance of a knowledge of whose wolfare is their respon- the Commonwealth 'in modem
bility.
(educationy
THIS I
BEQUEATH
THE RA
501 A
IF the Californians are REALLY as stafu esque as one hears..
If the New York cops REALLY all trish
men...
... IF New York is REALLY lacking in the charms and.com. forts of Paris
IF the American female is REALLY deadlier than
the mele..
PARTY
If their hospitality is REALLY all it's
cracked up to be.
ROUNDABOUT
AHRAD
IP they sth chain
Qui
BUT above all to
find out what they
think about, B6,
Landai Express Baryins