Een aardig boek van journalist William Deedes die door The Morning Post in 1935 naar Abyssinië werd gestuurd om de (dreigende) inval van de Italianen te verslaan. Tussen de vele reporters bevond zich ook Evelyn Waugh met wie hij daar optrok. Deedes zou gedeeltelijk model hebben gestaan voor William Boot die voor 'The Daily Beast' naar Oost-Afrika trok in 'Scoop'.
Ik had meer van 'At War with Waugh' verwacht, misschien keek ik te veel uit naar een tweede 'Waugh in Abyssinia' of zelfs een 'Scoop'. Ik mis gedetailleerde uitweidingen en hier en daar een ironische opmerking. De karakterschets van Waugh had ook meer aandacht mogen krijgen. Het is wel bijna 70 jaar na dato geschreven, wat misschien een reden is voor het gebrek aan uitdieping.
Je krijgt, moet ik zeggen, wel een goed beeld van een Waugh die allang niet meer geïnteresseerd is in nieuws garen. Hij probeert via een telex zijn ontslag in te dienen bij zijn krant, maar blijft wel in Abyssinië om er genoeg materiaal te kunnen verzamelen voor zijn twee volgende boeken, 'Waugh in Abyssinia' en 'Scoop'. ( )

Bill Deedes is a remarkable man, pre-war reporter, winner of the Military Cross, former Cabinet Minister, ex-Editor of the Telegraph, friend of the Thatchers, an Ambassador for UNICEF (campaigning against landmines), and a Journalist again - still going, I think, at the age of 93

Despite all this, he tends to be better known for his fictional incarnations - he was the model for the 'Bill' of the 'Dear Bill' letters that appeared in Private Eye, and his speech impediment gave that magazine its "shurely shome mishtake", editorial interjections. Before either of those he was widely supposed to be the model for William Boot, the naive hero of Waugh's Scoop.


'Amiable' is a word that attaches itself to Deedes, and this is a short and amiable look at his time spent reporting with Waugh, from Abyssinia. He mildly plays down the extent to which he was really the model for Boot (although conceding that he need three taxis to get his luggage to the station). The book isn't really about Waugh, or about the Abyssinian/Italian War, or even about Deedes himself, it's just a pleasant ramble through his memories.


I was interested because I've recently read Scoop and Waugh's own version of the same events in Waugh in Abyssinia, and this added to my enjoyment, especially where he identified the characters in Scoop with real people, however Deedes' writing isn't a patch on Waugh's - to the extent that my bad habit of turning over page corners, every time a passage really impresses me, resulted in no damage at all to this book!


I did learn one thing that surprised me - Waugh was something of an action man, he could rough it yet was adept at getting luxuries, he was personally fearless and scornful of those who went running for safe areas, he was generous with his time and taught his colleagues to ride, despite holding them up to ridicule at every opportunity - an odd and complex man.