Scoop

Written by Evelyn Waugh

Narrated by Simon Cadell

Lord Copper, newspaper magnate and proprietor of the Daily Beast, has always prided himself on his intuitive flair for spotting ace reporters. That is not to say he has not made the odd blunder, however, and may in a moment of weakness make another.

Acting on a dinner party tip from Mrs. Algernon Stitch, Lord Copper feels convinced that he has hit on just the chap to cover a promising war in the African Republic of Ishmaelia.

So begins Scoop, Waugh's exuberant comedy of mistaken identity and brilliantly irreverent satire of the hectic pursuit of hot news. Evelyn Waugh's tale of an innocent abroad is a hilarious satire on journalism, set amidst the powerful currents of the 1930's, and contains a memorable collection of comic creations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Little, Brown (Hachette UK) Audio
• Release date: Nov 5, 2015
• ISBN: 9781405534208

Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) estudió historia moderna en Oxford, donde llevó, según sus palabras, una vida de "pereza, disolución y derroche". Publicó en 1928 su primera novela, "Cuerpos viles", "¡Noticia bomba!" y "Merienda de negros", publicadas en esta colección, que le establecieron como el novelista cómico inglés más considerabe desde Dickens. Después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, el influjo de su conversión al catolicismose hizo muy acusado; destacan entre las obras de dicho periodo "Retorno a Brideshead", la trilogía "La espada del honor" y también "Los seres queridos", en la que regresó a la veta satírica de sus primeras novelas.

Reviews for Scoop

[jjmann3-873368 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Some novels present timeless themes that resonate with readers many years after they are published. I found Scoop to be not one of those novels. Based loosely on Waugh’s tour of Ethiopia when invaded by Italy before the outbreak of WW2, Scoop is a satire on mass media and its endless, oftentimes fact-free drive for fantastical headlines. About 80 years on, Scoop remains apt in its critique of the press and its abject churn for the extreme. But otherwise, it has aged as well as a Tintin comic. I found the humor it sought to present off balanced by continual racism on the part of some of the characters.

[edwinbcn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Scoop is one of the funniest and most carefree novels of Evelyn Waugh. Its appeal lies partly in our own strenuous relation with the media. Above all, the plot of the novel is based on the classic ploy of mistaken identity, sending the wrong man for the job. As a result of misfired nepotism， a newspaper, "The Daily Beast" sends one of its reporters to a war zone. What follows is just purely hilarious, truly a very funny story.Evelyn Waugh at his best!

[jeffome · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I absolutely loved this little book! Ridiculous from start to finish, but in a good way......exposing all of the befuddled disconnectedness of not only Fleet Street press, but upper crust London Society and the landed (but broke) gentry. One blunder after another in the most ridiculous set of circumstances finds our hero(?) William Boot yanked from the comfort of his run-down country estate and plunged headlong into a political war in Africa.....nothing is as it seems....and for once, lack of initiative actually saves the day. I cannot say how many times i chuckled out loud as i read this.....nor can i say when the last time was i read a book that caused me to chuckle out loud over and over! Waugh hits this with a biting wit and allows these absolutely ridiculous (yet believable) people to thrive in their self-induced chaos, and we are just along for the ride. So glad to have read this. Thank you Evelyn Waugh!

[lethalmauve · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Eh, this fairly decent satire on journalism turns out to be a One Big Meh in my headline. It is not even that funny. The humorous moments mostly pile themselves at the start and the end where it sandwiches a droll and dull war in a fictional place with a very weird unrequited romance in tow. By the time it picks up again, with its characters that almost feel like puppets instead of people, my attention is barely there. And I also find it difficult to ignore Waugh’s downplayed but still apparent anti-semitism and racist slurs that I can’t believe this is the same author who wrote Brideshead Revisited. On my bed rests a copy of Vile Bodies currently. Oh well let’s hope Waugh isn’t very vile in that one.

[etxgardener · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Although incredibly politically incorrect, Waugh's send up of Fleet Street journalism is very funny, and still relevant 82 years later.

[pdcread · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Odd book really. Very dated language and ideas. Didn't see any of the humour, but the irony was laid on in spades

[browner56 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As he was gaining fame as a novelist, Evelyn Waugh spent time as newspaper correspondent in Africa covering the Ethiopian-Italian war. That experience was essential in forming the basic plot of Scoop, which above all else is a fierce satire of the state of journalism in Great Britain of the 1930s. In the book, the owner of a London-based tabloid newspaper who is always in pursuit of the next hot story, charges his foreign editor to hire an up-and-coming writer to cover an emerging conflict in the African country of Ishmaelia. The editor erroneously taps the writer’s cousin, an introverted man who produces a minor nature column from his village home. This case of mistaken identity sets in motion an unlikely, but often amusing, series of events that fall somewhere between screwball comedy and a bitter indictment of how Fleet Street went about its business at that time. After many travails, the impromptu reporter is successful in uncovering news of an attempted coup-d’etat—sort of, anyway—which represents the “scoop” of the novel’s title. After that experience, the fledging correspondent happily returns to his country home, while a different relative of his benefits from yet another instance of switched identities.I am somewhat torn as to how to evaluate this book. On one hand, I appreciate its skewering view of a subject that certainly invites considerable lampooning and scorn. Indeed, while technology has evolved greatly over the ensuing decades, the basic complaints in Scoop as to how journalism sometimes functions could still be written today. Also, the novel gives the reader a keen, if scathing, insight into British culture as it existed just before WWII. As much as anything, that is likely the reason why the book continues to be so well regarded in critical circles (e.g., it is rated on Modern Library’s list of the top novels of the last century). On the other hand, despite its farcical style, it is not always a pleasant book for a present-day audience; the dismissive colonial perspective that Waugh adopts is considered by many to be overtly racist. In fact, by some accounts, the author himself was a rude, cruel, and snobbish man—he supported fascist causes early in his career—which makes it hard to separate the fiction from the artist. So, while I certainly enjoyed the glimpse the book offers into the British mindset of a long-passed era, it does not rank among my favorite reading experiences.

[iansales_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Well, if I’d thought Black Mischief was racist, it’s almost woke compared to Scoop. And yet Scoop is the Waugh novel which appears on so many best of lists, including “Best British Novels of All Time”. Of course, the people putting together these lists are not the ones who are troubled by the casual everyday racism embedded in them, but things have changed – for the better – and these works really should be re-evaluated in light of present-day sensibilities. And yes, I’m happy to call any right-winger a fascist, even if their views don’t fit the dictionary definition of fascism, let’s not forget taxonomy is a derailing technique and the only people who derail arguments are people who don’t want their views held up to public scrutiny. Because they’re probably fascist. Or racist. Like Scoop actually is. Its story is apparently inspired by real events, but it’s still a story about a white man – a hapless white man, it must be said – who goes to an “uncivilised” African country. Because all brown countries are, of course, uncivilised. At least to 1930s white people. But then, to add insult to injury, the text is filled with a number of racial slurs, not just spoken in dialogue, but in the actual descriptive prose. I lost count of them. The big joke is that a newspaper magnate has picked the wrong man – due to some confusion over names – to be his foreign correspondent covering a civil war in the invented African nation of Ishmaelia, but the Ishmaelians are too stupid and indolent to actually fight and all that happens is a series of contradictory communiques by government agencies. It’s a variation on Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday, but written from a British colonialist perspective of the 1930s. Waugh was a terrible snob and a horrible person – it’s well-documented, he was deemed “officer most likely to be shot by his troops” during WWII – but he had a wonderful prose style. It’s a dilemma. His command of English is a joy to behold, but he wrote horribly racist and snobbish books (the latter allegedly presented as “comedy”). Read him and then throw his books away, that’s my strategy.

[steve38 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Amusing but I'm not sure it deserves the long standing assessment that it is a classic. A broad farce with mistaken identities, dropped trousers, cartoon like stereotypes as the main cast. And, of course, very much of its time displaying colonialist racist views.

[amerynth · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Evelyn Waugh was a pretty vile human being (even for his time) and unfortunately, "Scoop" contains elements of his racism and anti-Semitism, which mar an otherwise decent novel.(I put this book on my list after reading and loving Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited" -- before I had read anything about the author's life.)"Scoop" is the story of a newspaper columnist named Boot, who gets sent overseas as a foreign correspondent to Ishmaelia, where a war is expected to break out despite his lack of qualifications, because his name is similar to someone else more qualified. As a recovering reporter, there were elements of this book I found amusing and that still ring true today-- especially the pack mentality, which is still present in reporting today.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An uproariously funny comedy of errors with some of the wittiest dialogue I have ever read... it's only a shame that Waugh's racism comes to the fore with some less than well-chosen nouns that really, really make the book feel dated.

[thebookjunky · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It is an old Penguin book, the orange and white one, a reprint from 1951. This book, these musty papers are 8 years older than i am!
It was a 50c find, among boxes of old books for sale at the school fair last month. Maybe it was even just a quarter. Cheap as anyway. And still in good enough condition for reading; the pages arent falling out, there’s no water damage etc. And it has that marvelous musty old book smell. Aaah.
And what a surprise of a treat to read. Having read only Brideshead Revisited many years ago, when i was too young to really appreciate it, but old enough to like it anyway, it felt like my introduction to the satire of Evelyn Waugh. It does make me wonder, where are these types of writers today?
The book has lively eccentric characters, you can see the old movie in your brain. Yet i am surprised that i cant find if a movie has been made of it. Some sassy comedy with fast talkers, smooth suave fraudsters, Claudette Colbert, or Cary Grant.....surely something must have been done on film with this....
(read several years ago, came across the jottings today)

[quibee · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An innocent abroad, a rural correspondant of "The Daily Beast", William Boot, gets sent overseas to cover the unrest in the African kingdom of Ishmaelia.
Apparently, not a totally inaccurate way of how foreign wars were covered, i.e. from a distance and quite a bit of it made up, which is disconcerting. (Of course, nothing like that would ever happen today....?)

[bagpuss-3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Mrs Algernon Stitch recommends a reporter called Boot to go to Ishmaelia as newspaper The Beast’s war correspondent. Unfortunately due to a mix up the wrong Boot gets ‘called up’ and leaves behind his cosy country home where he writes a column about nature and finds himself out of his depth in a foreign country on the brink of war, amongst a group of journalists as he struggles to come up with a ‘scoop’ that no other journalist gets wind of.

The first part of this book is really quite funny, and the character of Mrs Stitch is excellent. Unfortunately she soon disappears from the action and when that happened I felt the book lost some of its spark. There are some amusing moments, but on the whole I found it a bit of a let-down and not as good as Waugh’s Vile Bodies. There has been some criticism of the book due to its apparently racist nature. I think today’s reader has to remember that the book is “of it’s time”, and whilst some of the language wouldn’t be acceptable if written today, it was acceptable at the time, even if it shouldn’t have been.

[jnwelch_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The 1938 book [Scoop] by [[Evelyn Waugh]] satirically trashes "Fleet Street" journalism. It starts with an identity mix-up: the owner of The Daily Beast is persuaded to send hot novelist and travel writer John Courteney Boot to report on “a very promising little war” in the East African country Ishmaelia. Instead the newspaper mistakenly sends its mild-mannered and clueless staff writer William Boot, a nature writer who likes to compose sentences like, “Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole." Boot is joined by other journalistic Brits, Americans, French, Swedes and so on, all competing to outsplash the others. As it turns out, there's no war going on, so they need to get creative to please their editors. Rumors fly and quickly become stories, and the truth doesn't even merit secondary consideration. "News is what a chap who doesn't care much about anything wants to read. And it's only news until he's read it." The humor continues to have bite today, and it's easy enough to substitute "Rupert Murdoch" for "Lord Copper", the always-right owner of the Daily Beast, or to recognize the pressure newscaster Brian Williams felt to make up entertaining stories.Sure enough, by resisting the herd mentality, in the end Boot scoops all the others. But the consequent honors bestowed disconcert him, and there is yet another case of mistaken identity that will have its effect.. All Boot wants to do is resume his musings on nature, writing about "maternal rodents [who] pilot their furry brood through the stubble." This one is full of laughs. More than once it made me think of [[P.G. Wodehouse]] and his Jeeves and Bertie Wooster stories. Sure enough, toward the end of [Scoop], two characters bond over their mutual friendship with someone named "Bertie Wodehouse-Bonner".

[kishields · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Brilliant, elegant satire that includes all levels of English society, focusing particularly on the crumbling landed gentry at their estates, but also on working journalists in the city. Satirical observations as well once our hero is sent abroad to Africa, where in the fictional country of Ishmaelia the citizens care less than the Communists and the Europeans who wins or loses in the latest manufactured war. Excellent observations of the follies of foreign correspondence, still applicable today. The newspapers all have their agendas, the editors are clueless and the correspondents themselves are put into the ridiculous position of trying to create the news the public wants to hear. Sound familiar? Waugh's style and ability to create the most perfect sentences and bits of dialogue between two obtuse participants are unparalleled. This is one of the finest satires you will find…and modern readers will find many familiar elements in his depiction of both contemporary global political machinations…and the maneuvers of big business at home.

[jvioland_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A satire on the motivations and manipulations of the Press. Funny. Well written. If only Waugh were alive today he would be appalled by the public's naivete and the overwhelming power of the media.

[davido1103 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very funny; still relevant (written in 1937). Send-up of sensationalist journalism. Spoof of journalism, capitalism, emerging countries. Certainly not politically correct today, but spot on for much of it. Laughed a lot throughout... Haven't read Waugh since college or shortly after... will read more now, I think.

[ffortsa · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A satire, this novel is dated in its language and prejudice, but not in its essence. Through a case of mistaken identity, William Boot is sent by the newspaper the Beast to an African nation to report on the civil war there, only to find that it is almost entirely made up by the journalists he meets there. Waugh skewers journalists, newspapers, capitalism and government corruption, all applicable to our current world, but the combination of his own bigotry and the general bigotry of the 1930s combine to make parts of this book rather uncomfortable.

[elaineruss · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Brilliantly observed and written. This is only the second novel by Waugh I've read. He is quite possibly one of the sharpest writers I have ever read.

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very amusing satire of newspaper life & Colonial African politics. Probably not very politically correct in today's terms but I could easily visualize the attitudes and apathy of the natives of Ishmaelia, as well as the gullibility of the Europeans & cynicism of the newsmen.

[philipjhunt · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Definitely a classic, and of the enjoyable type too. With hints towards Kafka or the Goon Show, Evelyn Waugh tracks our surprised hero into a war zone. A kind of 1930s Idiot Abroad. There's a raft of quirky characters, many surprises and loads of laughs. Less of an insight into Fleet Street, than a romp of English humour.

[karl6steel · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Second time reading.

File this under guilty pleasures. I'm, well outraged isn't the right word, made weary by the dreariness of the other reviews of this book: plot summaries, gestures towards its transhistorical narratives (or towards its capturing that peculiar moment before the Nazis invaded Poland), and hamfisted comparisons to P. G. Wodehouse (different sort of writer entirely, although, hilariously, Wodehouse does get a shoutout as the plot winds down). And then, well, there's the fact that the book is terribly racist. It's not racist in a Mein Kampf or Turner Diaries kind of way; there's no particular program Waugh wants to push; but the novel nevertheless goes hand-in-thoughtless-hand with the postwar atrocities committed by Britain in Kenya. Is this attitude inevitable? Simply a record of its time?

Of course not. Don't be foolish.

That said, it's delightful. I'm of course reminded of A. J. Liebling's war journalism. The plot should be a model for plots everywhere. The odd mixture of affection and contempt is characteristic of the best humor writing (see, for example, Diary of a Nobody or Cold Comfort Farm). I'm going a bit too far here: it's clear that Waugh finds the expropriation of Africa's natural resources by European colonial powers distasteful. And that's something.

I'd suggest, however, starting with The Loved One.

[exitfish · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Some people claim this is funny (even "hilarious"?!), but I found it to be only mildly, situationally funny. In fact, the fun is far outweighed by the racist and imperialist attitudes all though out the book. All the satire of journalism stuff is alright, but it's not worth the ugliness.

[annb2013 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very funny and proof that there's nothing wrong with long, twisty sentences when done right. Plus ca change and all that.

[cdddddd · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Pretty clever throughout but it turned out hilarious by the end.

[pilgrimjess · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the first Evelyn Waugh book that I have read and having now done so feel that I have been sorely missing. I mean I love PG Wodehouse so why not Waugh?The book appears at first glance to be a simple tale of mistaken identity as an obscure country gent is sent to Africa as the foreign correspondant of the Beast newspaper instead of an inspiring author but it soon becomes evident that it is more than that. It is a parody of journalism, communism. fascism and colonialism all in one. The book was written in the 1930's and should the power of the press, when foreign correspondants telegraphed the headlines of stories back to their headquarters for others to fill in the gaps solely dependant with their owners' pre-disposed opinion. Where papers could create tension where none existed. I loved the idea of a journalist locking himself away from his companions for a few days then making up some story of some daring deed before leaving the country before anyone can question them. I often like to watch the News 24 channels and often feel that the reporters there are trying to create a story where one does not exist just to fill time so feel that this story has a relevance in todays world.I loved the characters from the pompous Lord Cooper, the inept William and fighty Katchen and although in many repects they were like ships passing in the night as they flitted in and out they gave a certain depth and pathos to the tale.Waugh's style is more satirical rather outright humourous and as such is different than Wodehouse but all the same the book made me laugh out loud at times, the writting style quirky yet succinct and overall I really enjoyed it.

[dorritt_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Am slowly working my way through the Waugh canon but wish it hadn't taken me so long to get around to Scoop. Finished the book a couple of days ago and I'm still smiling over the final 15 pages.In this outing Waugh takes a break from heavy social commentary (war, politics, social mores) to take on a much broader mark: the fourth estate. Unrest is brewing in the African country of Ishmaelia; British tabloids scamble to deploy their best foreign correspondents to cover the efray. Alas, through a series of blunders and misunderstandings, the Beast ends up deploying the author of their "pastoral living" column. Regular readers of Waugh will recognize William Bolt's type: steadfast and unflappable in the face of mounting chaos. Thrust into the heart of a forgotten African country, surrounded by a cast of socially/ethically/intellectually compromised foreign correspondents, and laden with an entire train-car full of wholly ridiculous luggage (including a "rather overfurnished tent, three months' rations, a collapsible canoe, a jointed flagstaff and Union Jack, and hand-pump and sterilizing plant, an astrolabe, six suites of tropical linen and a sou'wester, a camp operating table and set of surgical instruments, a portable humidor, and a Christmas hamper complete with a Santa Claus costume and a tripod mistletoe stand"), Bolt weathers a series of increasingly absurd predictaments without ever compromising his dignity. There's not much subtlety here: the majority of characters are little more than grotesques and much of the humor is broad farce. But it's extraordinarily witty and hugely amusing farce: I laughed aloud so often, people actually began to move away from me on the metro. (A added boon during rush hour!)Yes, Waugh's treatment of Africans is racist and irreverent - but then again, so is his treatment of his fellow countrymen, so critical reviewers might consider lightening up. The racism is no more than an honest representation of the paternalistic attitude of Britain towards "uncivilized lands" at this time in history; and, besides, all's fair in love, war, and satire. Scoop is brisk, broad, and fun, fun, fun! Definitely a book I'll be picking up again one day.

[p_s_patrick · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Like some of Waugh's other comic novels, Scoop is based loosely on Waugh's personal experiences, and amuses the reader with its clever satirisation of virtually every aspect on which the book is based. In this case, we have a story about a rural journalist, who writes on countryside matters, who is by pure bad luck signed up as a foreign correspondent and sent out of the country to report on a civil war in a small country in Africa. He is clueless of course, but as an Englishman he blunders through and manages to do his best, even going as far (mainly by luck) as to get the eponymous Scoop.Scoop is of a similar quality to Waugh's Decline and Fall, and nearly as good as Black Mischief, which is probably the funniest book I've read. This is definitely one for fans of Waugh, and a good place to start for those who have not before experienced his brilliant humour.

[annbury_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This classic British novel raises the issue of "presentism" in crystal clear focus -- it is a wonderfully written and scathingly funny novel, but it is also racist. In 1938, when the book was written, British racism didn't bother to be covert (it was after all only 30 years earlier that Kipling referred to "lesser breeds without the law") and this book is full of racist opinions, and racist language. Should we judge the views and language of 1938 by the standards of 2011? To do so is to commit "presentism". That's an attitude that would cut one off from a lot of the great and enjoyable literature of the past, and one that I generally try to avoid. I did so with "Scoop", and enjoyed it a lot, despite fairly frequent cringes. BUT I can't always suspend the will to be offended, especially when it's my identity group that's getting dumped on -- as soon as I read what Mencken had to say about women, for example, I gave up on Mencken. I think a lot of readers may not be able to avoid being offended by this novel. Essentially, I'd have to put a caution lable on a positive recommendation -- "A Riot, but Racist"