Monthly Archives: May 2020

Not Wanted: Coronavirus Novels (At Least, Not Yet)

Posted on May 6, 2020 by Jeffrey Manley

In the latest issue of Literary Review, literary critic and novelist D J Taylor has an article entitled “Why I Won’t Be Writing a Coronavirus Novel”. This begins with his fears that some half baked ideas may already be forming … Continue reading →

Posted in Brideshead Revisited, Newspapers, Put Out More Flags, Sword of Honour, Unconditional Surrender/The End of the Battle, World War II | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Not Wanted: Coronavirus Novels (At Least, Not Yet)

Wanted: Comic Novelists

Posted on May 5, 2020 by Jeffrey Manley

Writing in the UK-based magazine The Critic, Alexander Larman bemoans the lack of comic novels in today’s literary marketplace. This is in an article entitled “Where is the Waugh or Wodehouse of our time? Comic writing: light distraction or social mirror?” … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Mischief, Decline and Fall, Evelyn Waugh, Fiction, Humo(u)r, Newspapers, The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold, Waugh Family | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Wanted: Comic Novelists

V-E Day Roundup

Posted on May 4, 2020 by Jeffrey Manley

–As the observance of the 75th anniversary of V-E Day approaches, the Daily Mail has posted in a slide show a collection of 1945 events that seemed to presage a return to a social system where class status was again … Continue reading →

Posted in A Handful of Dust, Anniversaries, Brideshead Revisited, Film, Newspapers, Ninety-Two Days, World War II | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on V-E Day Roundup