Scoop (novel)
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Scoop is a 1938 novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh. In this satire of sensational journalism, a young man, the author of a regular column on placid country life for a London newspaper aptly named the Daily Beast, is sent by mistake to the ficticious African state of Ishmaelia where a civil war threatens to break out. There, despite his total ineptitude, he accidentally manages to get the 'scoop' of the title.
The novel is partly based on Waugh's own experience working for the Daily Mail, when he was sent to cover Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia. When he got his own scoop on the invasion he telegraphed the story back in Latin for secrecy, but they discarded it. Lord Copper, the newspaper magnate, is based on an amalgam of Lord Northcliffe and Lord Beaverbrook; a character so fearsome that his obsequious Editor, Mr Salter, can never openly disagree with any statement he makes, answering "Definitely, Lord Copper" and 'Up to a point, Lord Copper" in place of "yes" or "no". Waugh based his hapless protagonist, William Boot, on Bill Deedes, a junior reporter who arrived in Addis Ababa aged 22 with two tons of luggage.
The novel is full of (all but identical) opposites: Lord Copper of the Daily Beast, Lord Zinc of the Daily Brute; the CumReds and the White Shirts, parodies of Communists and Black Shirts etc.
"Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole," a line from one of Boot's countryside columns, has become a famous comic example of overblown prose style.
Scoop was made into a 1987 British TV movie starring Michael Maloney and Denholm Elliott.
Scoop was ranked 54th in The Observer's 100 greatest novels of all time[1], and 75th in the Modern Library's list of 100 best novels.
[edit] References
- "The 100 greatest novels of all time: The list" by Robert McCrum, The Observer, October 12, 2003
