Our new Book Group choice couldn’t have been more different from “The Stepford Wives“, this month it’s “Scoop”* by Evelyn Waugh, published in 1938. According to Wikipedia, Scoop is a “satire of sensationalist journalism and foreign correspondents.” Phew!
Scoop
Country dweller William Boot writes a nature column for newspaper magnate Lord Copper’s Daily Beast. He gets mistaken for his more famous author cousin, John Boot, and is forced to go to the fictional East African state of Ishmaelia to cover a war that Lord Copper believes will boost the paper’s circulation figures. Despite William’s complete lack of interest and foreign correspondent skills, he accidentally ends up with the scoop of the title. When he returns home, the credit goes to his cousin, John, so William is able to return to his quiet country life.
Waugh clearly drew on his own experience as a journalist for the Daily Mail when he was sent to Abyssinia in 1935 to cover the anticipated Italian invasion. He too got a scoop, although the paper never actually published it.
Are Scoop’s themes still relevant today?
Christopher Hitchens, introducing the 2000 Penguin Classics edition of Scoop, said “Scoop endures because it is a novel of pitiless realism; the mirror of satire held up to catch the Caliban of the press corps.” Pithily put. And yet… one of the main themes does point out that journalists need to please their editors and owners so they will create news even if none really exists. That is certainly as true today as it was in 1938. Phone hacking scandals, anyone?
It’s also worth remembering that in 1938, the only way the public could find out what was happening in the world was via newspapers and, to a lesser extent, radio. People only received a curated and filtered version of whatever “news” each newspaper decided to publish. So for Waugh to openly satirise and criticise his erstwhile employer and profession was, I think, a very brave thing to do!
Film vs. book
Apparently Scoop was made into a 1972 BBC serial featuring Harry Worth and a 1987 British TV film, starring Michael Maloney and Denholm Elliott. I haven’t seen either so I have no idea how closely or not they followed the book.
As I was reading the book though, the film that kept coming to mind was 1997’s Wag the Dog* starring Robert de Niro and Dustin Hoffman. Di Niro plays a spin doctor who hires Hoffman’s producer to construct a fake war in Albania. This to distract attention from a president embroiled in a sex scandal days before his re-election. Ironically, the film was released just one month before the Monica Lewinsky scandal erupted, and the Clinton administration bombed a factory in Sudan. You couldn’t make it up!
Would I recommend it?
To be honest, I struggled with Scoop, I was easily distracted and ended up re-reading pages several times. Perhaps it’s because I’m out of practice with 1930’s writing (I didn’t enjoy The Last Tycoon either). It’s only a short novel (222 pages) but it’s not one I’ll remember with any fondness. You win some, you lose some.
Have you read Scoop? What did you think? Have you read any of Evelyn Waugh’s other books? Did you like them or not?
* This post features some affiliate links (please see my disclaimer).
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