Scoop (novel)

"Scoop" is a 1938 novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, a satire of sensational journalism and foreign correspondence.

Plot

William Boot, a young man who lives in genteel poverty far from the iniquities of London, writes a nature column for a national newspaper. He is dragooned into becoming a foreign correspondent when the editors of the aptly named "Daily Beast" mistake him for a novelist who shares his surname. He is sent to the fictional African state of Ishmaelia where a civil war threatens to break out. There, despite his total ineptitude, he accidentally manages to get the "scoop" of the title. When he returns, however, credit is diverted to the other Boot, and he is left to return to his bucolic pursuits, much to his relief.

Background

The novel is partly based on Waugh's own experience working for the "Daily Mail", when he was sent to cover Mussolini's expected invasion of Abyssinia, what was later known as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. When he got his own scoop on the invasion he telegraphed the story back in Latin for secrecy, but they discarded it. Waugh wrote up his travels more factually in "Waugh in Abyssinia" (1936), which complements "Scoop".

Lord Copper, the newspaper magnate, is based on an amalgam of Lord Northcliffe and Lord Beaverbrook: a character so fearsome that his obsequious editor, Mr Salter, can never openly disagree with any statement he makes, answering "Definitely, Lord Copper" and 'Up to a point, Lord Copper" in place of "yes" or "no". Lord Copper's idea of the lowliest of his employees is a book reviewer.

It is widely believed that Waugh based his hapless protagonist, William Boot, on Bill Deedes, a junior reporter who arrived in Addis Ababa aged 22 with two tons of luggage. However, a more direct model is William Beach Thomas who, according to Peter Stothard, "was a quietly successful countryside columnist and literary gent who became a calamitous Daily Mail war correspondent." [The Times [http://timescolumns.typepad.com/stothard/2007/05/hay_we_got_it_w.html Hay, we got it wrong] 29 May 2007]

The novel is full of all but identical opposites: Lord Copper of the "Daily Beast", Lord Zinc of the "Daily Brute"; the CumReds and the White Shirts, parodies of Communists (comrades) and Black Shirts (fascists) etc.

"Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole," a line from one of Boot's countryside columns, has become a famous comic example of overblown prose style. It inspired the name of the environmentalist magazine "Vole", which was originally titled "The Questing Vole".

One of the points of the novel is that even if there is little news happening, the world's media descending upon a place requires that something happen to please their editors and owners back home, and so they will create news.

Legacy and adaptations

"Scoop" was made into a 1972 BBC serial and a 1987 British TV movie starring Michael Maloney and Denholm Elliott.

"Scoop" was included in "The Observer" list of the 100 greatest novels of all time [The Observer [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1061037,00.html "The 100 greatest novels of all time: The list"] by Robert McCrum, October 12, 2003] , and ranked 75th in the Modern Library list of best 20th-century novels.

The "overt racism" evident in "Scoop" and his other African writings has been forgiven by Ethiopian luminaries because his humour, satire, cruelty and wit were spread even-handedly, attacking the foibles of his own country at least as vigorously as those of foreigners. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/2967811.stm] BBC World Service "Anniversary Waugh of words" 23 April 2003 ]

Notes and References

External links

* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/classics/story/0,6000,1070451,00.html Guardian analysis]