Evelyn Waugh - Scoop: A novel about Journalists

review by Ro Bennett on show 5th April
Evelyn Waugh the author was born in 1903 and died in 1966. Scoop was written in 1938, but I still found it a very easy, and enjoyable read. Each character is portrayed as an amplified caricature and every situation is exaggerated, it is rife with mistaken identities, mix ups and the generally ludicrous and it appealed to my sense of humour.

Lord Copper, newspaper magnate and proprietor of the Daily Beast, has always prided himself on his intuitive flair for spotting ace reporters. That is not to say he has not made the odd blunder, however, and may in a moment of weakness make another. Acting on a dinner-party tip from Mrs Algernon Smith, he feels convinced that he has hit on just the chap to cover a promising little war in the African Republic of Ishmaelia.

William Boot writes a nature column for the Daily Beast entitled ‘Lush Places’, featuring detailed observations from the depths of his country estate. All is fine until the paper’s foreign editor confuses him with a war reporter, and the bewildered Boot is dispatched to the East African Republic of Ishmaelia to cover a major political crisis. Once there, he encounters the manipulative power of the world’s press, tangles with big business and falls in love for the first time.
One of Waugh's most exuberant comedies and inspired by Waugh’s own experience as a war reporter, Scoop is a brilliantly irreverent satire of Fleet Street and its hectic pursuit of hot news.

In view of the Leveson enquiry and latest scandal surrounding the press, it appears to be just as relevant today - nothing much changes...

I enjoyed the book so much that I bought the DVD of the ITV transmission of the play adapted from the book in April 1987. It is also very entertaining with an excellent cast. Donald Pleasance plays the war hungry publisher Lord Copper, Denholm Elliot his timorous foreign editor, Jack Shepherd is Corker, the roving hack who rarely misses a good story - factual or otherwise. Herbert Lom and Michael Hordern and Nicola Pagett also appear. So - excellent entertainment all round!