The BBC Radio 4 episode of its “Great Lives” series is now available to monitor on BBC iPlayer. Presenter Matthew Parris spent most most of the broadcast baiting panelists Russell Kane and Anne Pasternak Slater by citing examples of Waugh’s bad behavior. Parris went so far as to claim that he could not read Waugh’s books, even though conceding they were brilliantly written, because Waugh himself was such a horrible person. Kane and Pasternak Slater were at pains to explain that much of Waugh’s behavior was an act, intended to generate attention and promote his career, and should not be taken too seriously. I would have to say that the pro-Waugh camp got the better of it. Indeed, Parris’s position rather proved their point.
