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Evelyn Waugh was a snob, a racist, an anti-semite and a fascist sympathiser whose attitude was, in the words of his biographer David Wykes, "[Waugh's racism was] "an illogical extension of his views on the naturalness and rightness of hierarchy as the (main) principle of social organisation".

He was also jealous, personally nasty and malicious, had been a bully at school, and as James Lees-Milne said, "the nastiest-tempered man in England".

Waugh was, however, absolutely devoted to his adopted religion, Catholicism, and generally friendly, welcoming and generous to other Catholics. Nancy Mitford asked him how he reconciled his often objectionable conduct and attitude with being a Christian, said he replied that "were he not a Christian he would be even more horrible".

All of this is on display in this absolutely hilarious farce of a book, and right at the beginning the tone is set,

"That’s Mrs. Cohen,� said Effie. “You see how it is. They’re Yids.�

“Sure it isn’t the nigger downstairs you want?�

Scoop is a satire on journalism and the newspaper industry in general based on his own experiences or rather that of a fellow war correspondent for the Daily Mail covering the Abyssinian-Italian war. Although the characters are so utterly defined by the mythical racial characteristics assigned to them by an unkind world, it is still easy to laugh. The snobbery which the non-ethnic characters displayed was equally harsh and that is perhaps the key as to why such an ostensibly nasty book by such an unpleasant man is so funny, he must have seen himself in all of this, "He was gifted with the sly, sharp instinct for self-preservation that passes for wisdom among the rich," and so it's a bit of a send-up, and that's something we can all appreciate.

The writing is wonderful, just as it was in his opus magnum, Brideshead Revisited, the humour extravagant, the denoument ridiculous. All in all, recommended to everyone who likes period pieces that aren't quite. nor ever will be, classics.