Autumnal Equinox Roundup

–The political-economic online journal Compact has an article entitled “The End of the Churchill Myth.” This is by Nathan Pinkoski who describes how the principles on which Churchill based his war and postwar foreign policy (as adopted, amended and applied by the US) are now being proven to have been myths. The article concludes with this reference to and quote from Waugh’s 1950s novel Sword of Honour, where Waugh foresees this result:

The greatest literary work addressing World War II is Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honor, written during the 1950s. The trilogy offers a blunt analysis of Britain’s fate. Yet it bends toward a surprising spiritual denouement. Following the career of Guy Crouchback as he enlists to fight against totalitarianism, the series begins with Waugh’s familiar satire, excoriating the failures of the British leadership class. This satire takes a dark turn in the second novel. Rather than recount the war’s victories, Waugh devoted most of the novel to the humiliating British withdrawal from Crete in 1941. The theme of imperial decline is obvious, but Waugh ultimately offered a more profound lesson. As a passage toward the end of the trilogy intimates, Waugh repudiated the moral myths of the war and gestured in a different, redemptive direction.

‘Is there any place that is free from evil? It is too simple to say that only the Nazis wanted war. These communists wanted it too. It was the only way in which they could come to power. Many of my people wanted it, to be revenged on the Germans, to hasten the creation of the national state. It seems to me there was a will to war, a death wish, everywhere. Even good men thought their private honour would be satisfied by war. They could assert their manhood by killing and being killed. They would accept hardships in recompense for having been selfish and lazy. Danger justified privilege. I knew Italians—not very many perhaps—who felt this. Were there none in England?’

‘God forgive me,’ said Guy. ‘I was one of them.’

Here is a link to the entire article.

—The Observer quotes Waugh in an article by Anne McAvoy relating to the recent ownership sale of The Spectator magazine. Here are the opening paragraphs:

“Expect the unexpected” is the bland but pointed advice given by the evasive editor of the Daily Beast to the bemused William Boot, accidental protagonist in Evelyn Waugh’s deathless Fleet Street satire, Scoop. This has turned out to be durable counsel when observing the ins and outs of newspaper proprietors: much that is solid has a tendency to melt.

So the Spectator (for which I worked in the late 1990s under the Telegraph Group ownership of Conrad Black) had a long period under the sway of the Barclay family, which has come to a debt-laden crashing close. The weekly magazine has been sold for a reassuringly high £100m to the hedge funder Sir Paul Marshall, after an Abu Dhabi-backed bid to buy it collapsed amid concerns that state-backed entities should not own UK news outlets.

The Daily Telegraph and its Sunday sister have attracted last-round bids from Marshall, a former Lib Dem and later Brexiter (though not at the same time) who has clearly decided that he is prepared to empty considerable pockets into UK media via his backing for the rightwing GB News channel and eclectic UnHerd website. In a donkey derby of remaining bidders, the recipe is ideological with a major injection of investment or private equity cash…

–Waugh’s novel on newspapers also features in a recent story in Financial Times. This is a report by Tim Hayward on a visit to the restaurant Sweetings, located in the City near the newspaper’s offices. It actually took two visits to compile the report. Here’s how the article opens:

This week, I thought I ought to do a business lunch or two. I’m a freelancer, so my relationship with my paper resembles that of William Boot and the Daily Beast in Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop. Occasionally, I put on a suit and take the train down from The Country, to dine, bewildered, with my editor. So I asked her, “Where do you chaps go for your long, champagne-lubricated lunches?” and she seemed a little baffled. My image of the modern fourth estate may be askew. Nevertheless, she suggested Sweetings…

The visits resulted in a favorable and entertaining report which can be read at this link. You may have to register to read the story.

–A recent issue of The Oldie carries a story by Pierre Waugh relating to his experience as a pallbearer at the recent funeral service of his uncle, Alexander Waugh. This is entitled “The Absurd Waugh Family: Pierre Waugh salutes his uncle Alexander (1963-2024), grandfather Auberon and great grandfather Evelyn–and their war on seriousness.” Among other things, he tells us that his uncle Alexander was known within the family as “Pedro”. Pierre Waugh is a post graduate student at Durham University who is currently finishing his MA dissertation on the works of Aldous Huxley.  You may be able to read the entire article at this link, Thanks to reader David Lull for sending the link.

–Film-maker Luca Guadagnino was recently interviewed by the entertainment industry newspaper Deadline. The report on the interview by Baz Bamigboye opens with this:

Filmmaker Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name) hopes to revive his dream project to make a mammoth 10-episode television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited.

Two years ago the director had assembled an all-star cast including Cate Blanchett, Ralph Fiennes, Andrew Garfield and Rooney Mara, to lead a 10-part prestige TV version of Waugh’s brilliant study of British upper-class decadence.

But the HBO and BBC production was shelved because of its cost. “It’s a very sad story,” Guadagnino told Deadline late on Sunday night, following a screening at the Telluride Film Festival of his latest film …

For those who are interested, the report includes further details about Guadagnino’s plans for the project. Here’s a link.