The columnist for the TLS, who writes their “NB” page and goes by the initials J.C. (said to be the abbreviation of critic James Campbell), had a Waugh encounter described in the latest issue.
On a day trip to Lewes, he found a copy of Waugh’s Love Among the Ruins at a secondhand bookshop. This was on the day that the Paris climate agreement was concluded and, when he opened the book, the first sentence immediately struck him: “Despite their promises at the last election, the politicians had not yet changed the climate.” Hooked, he thought he’d better have the book:
The politicians’ promise was for snow on what, in this irreligious near future, was called Santa Claus Day. But the weather “continued from day to day as it had of old, most anomalously.” The Department of Euthanasia has logically superseded the Department of Pensions and is “the one department that’s expanding”; the Ministry of Art only sanctions politically approved–we now say “correct”–output; drinking is monitored by the government.
In the pre- holiday period (what Waugh called “Santa-Claus-Tide”), the bookshop was “quiet but active.” Although tempted by a copy of J.M. Barrie’s My Lady Nicotine, J.C. opted for
Waugh’s “amusement for the still civilized” instead. A first edition, complete with dust jacket designed by Waugh himself (he also drew most of the illustrations in the text, including one [that accompanies the article] of a bearded transgender figure receiving a garland) cost 10 pounds.
Santa Claus Day indeed! Sounds like a real bargain. My copy purchased 20+ years ago cost $50. For those not so fortunate as the TLS columnist, the novella can also be found in the collection of Waugh’s complete stories.
