A "Scoop" for our times …

… Waugh’s Beast is back, still satirising those who make England so febrile | Ian Jack | Opinion | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

A forthcoming novel, The Beast, has reminded me of those times. As the title suggests, the book makes no bones about its literary heritage and unashamedly tips its hat to the work of Michael Frayn as well as Waugh. Its comedy is darker than either, but arguably (Scoop, after all, was published in 1938) that bleakness reflects our darker age. Certainly, its subject more urgently demands our attention.

Our age is dark, for sure, but in 1938 it was on the verge of a world war. That sounds maybe even darker.