| Scoop | |
|---|---|
 Jacket of the first UK edition |
|
| Author | Evelyn Waugh |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publication date | 1938 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Preceded by | 'A Handful of Dust' |
| Followed by | 'Put Out More Flags' |
Scoop is a 1938 novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, a satire of sensationalist journalism and foreign correspondence.
Contents |
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 Benito 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 foreign 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"[1].
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.
Reception
Christopher Hitchens, introducing the 2000 Penguin Classics edition of Scoop, said "In the pages of Scoop we encounter Waugh at the mid-season point of his perfect pitch; youthful and limber and light as a feather" [2]. 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's list of the 100 greatest novels of all time[3], and ranked 75th in the Modern Library list of best 20th-century novels[citation needed].
What some see as "overt racism" in Scoop[who?] and Waugh's other writing while in Africa has been excused by some Ethiopian luminaries, because his humour, satire, cruelty and wit were both remarkable and directed at the foibles of his own country as well[4]. Hitchens noted "he himself employs no term of hatred or contempt; his main fools are English or Swedish or German, and his villain -- the memorably-sketched Dr Benito -- is a suave and elegant and fluent black man."
Adaptions
William Boyd adapted the novel into a screenplay, which was directed by Gavin Millar. It aired on April 26, 1987
The fictional newspaper in Scoop served as the inspiration for the title of Tina Brown's online news source, The Daily Beast[5].
In 2009 the novel was serialised and broadcast on BBC Radio 4[6].
Notes and references
- ^ "Hay, we got it wrong". The Times. 29 May 2007. http://timescolumns.typepad.com/stothard/2007/05/hay_we_got_it_w.html.
- ^ Hitchens, C; Introduction to Scoop; Pengiun Classics, 2000, London
- ^ Robert McCrum (12 October 2003). "The 100 greatest novels of all time: The list". The Observer. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1061037,00.html.
- ^ "Anniversary Waugh of words". BBC World Service. 23 April 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/2967811.stm.
- ^ "Tina Brown Launches Much-Awaited News Site". The Daily Beast. 6 October 2008. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/06/the-daily-beast-tina-brow_n_132150.html.
- ^ "Scoop - BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial - streaming audio". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/classicserial. Retrieved 17 March 2009.
External links
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