Bright Young Things discussion
This topic is about
Labels
Hot books/small group reads
>
"Labels: A Mediterranean Journal" by Evelyn Waugh
I have just opened up my copy and, in one of those curious and pleasing coincidences, I notice that the book is dedicated...With Love to Bryan and Diana Guinness
Without Whose Encouragement And
Hospitality This Book Would Not
Have Been Finished
That'd Diana Guinness aka Diana Mosley nee Diana Mitford who I have just been reading about in my previous book...
The Mitford Girls: The Biography of an Extraordinary Family by Mary S. Lovell
I love little coincidences like that.
By the by, he also dedicated Vile Bodies to the couple too.
Bryan Guinness was an heir to the Guinness brewing fortune and he married Diana Mitford in 1929. Evelyn Waugh dedicated Vile Bodies to the couple, partly because they were central to the Bright Young Things set. The dedication reads ‘With love to Bryan and Diana Guinness’.
He must have really liked them to dedicate Labels: A Mediterranean Journal to them as well.
Nigeyb wrote: "I have just opened up my copy and, in one of those curious and pleasing coincidences, I notice that the book is dedicated...With Love to Bryan and Diana Guinness
Without Whose Encouragement And
H..."
Didn't he live with them after the divorce from she-Evelyn? I think he was also in love with Diana for a while.
Vague memories/rambles while standing in the post office line behind 20 people...
Thanks Miss M. I love the idea of you having vague memories/rambles in a Post Office queue.Miss M wrote: "Didn't he live with them after the divorce from she-Evelyn?"
Quite possible. I will have read the information somewhere and not retained it.
Miss M wrote: "I think he was also in love with Diana for a while.
I think many people were in love with Diana - and that definitely included Evelyn. The character Nina Blount in Vile Bodies was based on Diana Mosley.
Labels: A Mediterranean Journal was first published in 1930, two years before Diana left Bryan Guinness for Oswald Mosley.
Yes, okay, possibly ramblings not rambles since we're definitely not moving anywhere... ;)
Miss M wrote: "possibly ramblings not rambles since we're definitely not moving anywhere... ;) "Quite so. I think the person in front has parcels for Egypt, the Holy Land, Crete and various Aegean islands, as well as Constantinople, Algeria and a few other places.
See what I did there? All places that Evelyn Waugh writes about in "Labels: A Mediterranean Journal". Phew. Back on track.
Thank you so much for drawing this book to my attention. Every time I read Waugh I remember why I adore him so much. I loved his musings on flying and the conversions to Catholicism after looping the loop! It is as though he is sitting chatting to you. I am sure I am wrong, but new authors do not seem to have this easy style, it seems like they are working at it. I am sure Evelyn did too, but it reads as though it is a first draft, with no alterations.
Love the cheap hotel with the false teeth under the pillow! This is going to be a gem.
Susan wrote: "Thank you so much for drawing this book to my attention. Every time I read Waugh I remember why I adore him so much."Aw thanks Susan. And thank you for so enthusiastically embracing it. I'm off to start it in a few minutes.
Susan wrote: "This is going to be a gem."
Excellent.
I'll be back to pick up on your more specific points once I've got a few pages under my belt.
Sorry, didn't mean to go on so enthusiastically - it is certainly a book to read slowly and savour.
Susan wrote: "Sorry, didn't mean to go on so enthusiastically - it is certainly a book to read slowly and savour."Absolutely no need to apologise. I've just finished the first chapter. What a delight. Much more humorous and self-deprecating than I was expecting. How typical is this of his non-fiction? I love the chatty style and the way he makes such interesting observations about what he's observing.
It's interesting to consider that when Waugh was writing his account of a flight to Paris it would have been interesting to his readers because of the novelty. In 2013 it is interesting because he made the flight as one of only two passengers and everything was so rudimentary - and novel to him.
Susan wrote: "Love the cheap hotel with the false teeth under the pillow!"
Me too - and the rest of the description of the cheap hotel room.
Amazing that Evelyn Waugh was mistaken for his older, and then more famous, brother Alec by a woman in Paris. "One of the geniuses of the age". Classic.
Nigeyb wrote: "Thanks Miss M. I love the idea of you having vague memories/rambles in a Post Office queue.Miss M wrote: "Didn't he live with them after the divorce from she-Evelyn?"
Quite possible. I will ha..."
Just a quick follow-up - for once my memory didn't deceive me...
Per Martin Stannard's Waugh bio (highly recommend), although supported by many friends during his divorce, it was at that time that he became closest to Diana and Bryan and stayed with them in several of their residences (and also fell in love with D.)
Further, She-Evelyn (the one being divorced) had suggested the travel book be dedicated to Alec Waugh, but "instead the honour went to Bryan and Diana, because, Alec believed, of the source of the original suggestion..."
Page 188
Very interesting. Thanks Miss M. Will check out that bio too."Labels" is an absolute delight. Lots of insights and humour, and exquisitely written. Eloquent and occasionally outrageous too.
Nigeyb wrote: "Eloquent and occasionally outrageous too."For example, I was amused by Evelyn's description of the vulgar German cruise ship whose inhabitants are all "unbelievably ugly Germans". albeit "dressed with great courage and enterprise e.g. One man wearing a morning coat, white trousers and a beret".
I observed above how I love the chatty style and the way he makes such interesting observations about what he' encounters.
This is the first piece of non-fiction I have read by Evelyn Waugh, and I am wondering how typical this is this of his non-fiction?
Nigeyb wrote: "Nigeyb wrote: "Eloquent and occasionally outrageous too."For example, I was amused by Evelyn's description of the vulgar German cruise ship whose inhabitants are all "unbelievably ugly Germans"...."
The first chapter of Labels is mostly about Paris, a very different Paris than the one George Orwell experienced in Down and out in Paris and London, (published 1933). Orwell moved to Paris in the Spring of 1928. In Labels, the time Evelyn Waugh is writing about is around February 1929. The two writers were probably in Paris at the same time.
Greg wrote: "George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh were probably in Paris at the same time."Joining the dots as ever Greg. What a remarkable thought. Thanks so much.
And, as you state, such contrasting experiences.
I love Down and Out in Paris and London.
Evelyn Waugh's somewhat amusing cheaper hotel room, false teeth under the pillow and all, were but nothing to George Orwell's privations.
Nigeyb wrote: "Greg wrote: "George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh were probably in Paris at the same time."Joining the dots as ever Greg. What a remarkable thought. Thanks so much.
And..."
Nigeyb, this is why I was rubbish at school, everyone has moved along with the teacher, and I'm still thinking about something, joining dots and getting left behind.
By the way, my partner, no Evelyn Waugh fan she, has been spotted reading and clearly enjoying my copy of Labels: A Mediterranean Journal. On three separate occasions no less. She asked me this morning, "Have you read the bit about the circus?".
I haven't.
Yet.
As someone who works in schools a lot, Greg, I would say that probably means you were the most intelligent person in the room. I remember reading a lovely story about Bletchley, when Churchill visited. The Sgt Major was outraged as none of these boffins wanted to march or drill and they went into the room where one of the scientists (Alan Turing I think) was sitting in front of the fire in his carpet slippers and Churchill asked him what he was doing. "Thinking" came the reply. On that day, Churchill said they were absolved from any marching, etc, and to leave them alone to think, as their time was better spent that way. Shortly afterwards, the Enigma code was broken. Musing is a very important activity...
By the way, Nigeyb, can't wait to listen to the new Open Book. I am planning to re-read the Lord Peter Wimsey books and then read the new books.
Not much reading time today, but Evelyn Waugh is capable of making almost anything sound interesting.
Do you think either Orwell or Waugh would have visited the bookshop Shakespeare and Company in Paris while they were there?What sort of books does your partner normally enjoy Nigeyb?
Listened to the Open Book programme this morning - Dorothy L Sayers added to the 'to read' pile!
Sarah wrote: "Do you think either Orwell or Waugh would have visited the bookshop Shakespeare and Company in Paris while they were there?"I suspect they'd both have visited.
Sarah wrote: "What sort of books does your partner normally enjoy Nigeyb?"
Almost exclusively fiction.
Loves Persephone Books. Favourite author: Jane Smiley. Favourite book: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Sarah wrote: "Listened to the Open Book programme this morning - Dorothy L Sayers added to the 'to read' pile!"
Hurrah!
Susan wrote: "As someone who works in schools a lot, Greg, I would say that probably means you were the most intelligent person in the room."
Seconded. At least you were actively engaging with whatever the teacher was discussing.
Susan wrote: "Musing is a very important activity..."
Absolutely. As is boredom apparently. Very conducive to creativity. It's something we risk potentially losing in our networked, low-boredom-threshold world.
Susan wrote: "By the way, Nigeyb, can't wait to listen to the new Open Book. I am planning to re-read the Lord Peter Wimsey books and then read the new books."
Hurrah! (Again). We really should read at least one for a BYT fiction read.
Susan wrote: "Evelyn Waugh is capable of making almost anything sound interesting. "
Isn't he just? I am enjoying this book so much. Everything he writes is solid gold. An extraordinarily talented writer. I am resolved to read more of his non-fiction now. This book is a revelation.
I'm over the halfway point now. I'll be sad to say farewell to this book.I enjoyed this little vignette of cruise ship life...
Deck games broke out all over the ship. The most exacting of these was called deck tennis. Some played with such vigour and persistence that they strained their backs and arms, slipped on the deck and bruised their knees, chafed raw places in the skin of their hands, struck each other in the face, twisted their ankles, and sweated profusely.
Susan wrote: "As someone who works in schools a lot, Greg, I would say that probably means you were the most intelligent person in the room. I remember reading a lovely story about Bletchley, when Churchill v..."
Thank you Susan, that is a lovely thing say. On leaving school I thought I mustn't be very bright.
Your comment about Bletchley and Alan Turing is very interesting. If I remember correctly, it was Turing who broke the Enigma code. I think, having broken the code, Churchill had to let Coventry be bombed otherwise the Germans would have realised the code had been broken.
Sarah wrote: "Do you think either Orwell or Waugh would have visited the bookshop Shakespeare and Company in Paris while they were there?What sort of books does your partner normally enjoy Nigeyb?
Listened to..."
Sarah, I was thinking that also. The imagination gets the scenarios going. Both of them in the Shakespeare and Co. bookshop at the same time. Either of them weren't well known, certainly not Orwell, as Eric Blair hadn't been published yet and they wouldn't have known of each other. It would make a good Television drama or a film.
I am about halfway through this now and Waugh is just about to leave Port Said. I was just reflecting on how, for a man who later got the reputation of being quite callous and sarcastic, he doesn't come across like that at all in his younger years. In fact, he stays with the young couple he meets first on the train, when the invalid Juliet has to go to hospital. Just wondered whether anyone else shared those impressions and whether Waugh changed with age? I know in books I have read by Alec Waugh, he says that he found it hard to be close to Evelyn as he got older.
Susan wrote: "I am about halfway through this now and Waugh is just about to leave Port Said. I was just reflecting on how, for a man who later got the reputation of being quite callous and sarcastic, he doesn'..."Susan, I get the impression Evelyn Waugh preferred travelling more than being home. There's one line in Labels that really jumps out and says so much. 'The pilgrim has become the pedestrian'. He differentiates the traveller of the past to that of modern times.
Waugh probably did appear to change with age. I don't think he is unique in appearing to become more cynical, sarcastic, callous, and intolerant, with mature age. His writing retained his humour and satire.
From what little I have been able to find out, Evelyn Waugh changed quite a bit as he grew older. When my broadband is back up I will expand on this point. We should probably all read a biography to understand this better.
Selina Hastings has written one, but possibly someone can recommend another. He seems very much gentler in this book - I would be fascinated to read his life story.
Broadband's back. Hurrah. I can now be more expansive about Susan's impression, which I share, regarding Waugh's apparent kindness and charm in this book, and how it is at odds with his more misanthropic reputation.I have just started Sword of Honour, and in the introduction by Angus Calder, he describes Evelyn Waugh as"profoundly unhappy" which, as you say Susan, doesn't appear to tally with the carefree, caring, witty and charming personality we find in Labels.
Angus Calder also states "after a very unhappy first marriage, annulled by his Church, he had found a long-suffering consort in Laura Herbert". Note "long-suffering". I recall Paula Byrne in Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead mentioning Laura, and perhaps a hint of her suffering, but nothing quite as explicit as this.
All very curious, what happened to change him? Or was he just hiding his true nature in Labels? Angus Calder also mentions, when talking about Waugh's own unhappy war, that he was able to "transmute uncomfortable personal experience into a masterpiece". So perhaps we cannot always take the Waugh on the page at face value? Whatever the truth of the matter, I wholeheartedly concur with Susan...
Susan wrote: "I would be fascinated to read his life story."
Me too. Let's do it.
For now, I have no insights into the merits of the various biographies available, except I came across this interesting (and favourable) review of the Selina Hastings biography...
Evelyn Waugh: A Biography by Selina Hastings .
Three quotes from the review, that I link to above, which are pertinent to Susan's question...
1. All his life Waugh was in equal measure fascinated and frightened by women. He loved women, their looks, their manner, their conversation (he was not, I think, a great admirer of their minds), yet in his relations with them he encountered mostly failure from the humiliating collapse of his first marriage through his hopeless pursuit of society beauties such as Olivia Plunket Greene, Diana Guinness and 'Baby' Jungman, to his clumsy, lovelorn dealings with his daughters.
2. The young Waugh has always been seen as misanthropic, loutish, drunken and cold, and certainly this is how he liked to present himself. Hastings, however, does not waste much time on this elaborately assembled disguise, pushing it aside without comment to reveal the anguished young man cowering behind it.
3. As a man he was quintessentially English - stubborn, class-obsessed, despairing, honourable, detached and at the same time unfathomably strange. Selina Hastings has drawn a remarkable portrait of a remarkable figure.
I read her biography of Maugham and it was very good. Can I assume this will be a new hot read in the New Year? I will order a copy if so.
Susan wrote: "Can I assume Evelyn Waugh: A Biography by Selina Hastings will be a new hot read in the New Year? I will order a copy if so."Yes. Let's do it. How about we put it forward as the March 2014 non-fiction choice and, if it's not successful, we read it as Hot Read?
Either way we read and discuss it in the first three months of 2014. What do you say?
Sounds good to me, either way. It looks a pretty huge book, but I am really keen to know more. I adored the part in Labels about Waugh staying in near proximity to the pyramids, and comparing it to having dinner at the table next to the Prince of Wales- where you pretend not to notice, but keep "glancing furtively" to check they are still there!
It's also funny how ugly he finds everyone. We've had extremely ugly Germans and now the women in Malta are all outrageously ugly. I wonder which country he actually approved of?
Yes, it's a big book....but nothing we can't handle.The pyramids section is excellent.
Susan wrote: "I wonder which country he actually approved of? "
Well, not a country but he's very positive about Corfu (as you will soon discover if you haven't already).
I do think his criticisms are frequently meant to be humorous. He's a bit like a stand up comedian portraying an exaggerated version of him or herself for comic effect. It probably also masks a host of insecurities and anxieties (as the Hastings review above hints at).
Greg wrote: "Sarah, I was thinking that also. The imagination gets the scenarios going. Both of them in the Shakespeare and Co. bookshop at the same time. Either of them weren't well known, certainly not Orwell, as Eric Blair hadn't been published yet and they wouldn't have known of each other. It would make a good Television drama or a film. "I was thinking about your post earlier and had a sudden vision of a drama where Waugh and Orwell would be depicted separately arriving and staying in Paris then at some point their paths would cross in Shakespeare and Company - either with a conversation, or with one walking out as the other walks in, but not interacting at all.
I've just realised that by nominating
Evelyn Waugh: A Biography
by
Selina Hastings
as a possible BYT non-fiction read for March 2014, I don't then get to nominate
Nancy Mitford: A Biography
by
Selina Hastings
which was my original proposal.Perhaps we should read Selina Hastings biographies all year?
Susan did also say that The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham: A Biography by Selina Hastings was "was very good" too.
Ms. Hastings is a dedicated biographer. Her bio of Nancy Mitford is often mentioned as the best of the bunch, so I am up for reading more of her work. One vote for Hastings:)
Or you could nominate it and Evelyn Waugh' s could just be a hot read. I have ordered it from the library and was told it might be there before Christmas. Her other biographies - Maugham, Mitford and Rosalind Lehmann are all on kindle.
Speaking of Maugham, I read The Painted Veil with another group. I realty enjoyed the book and the discussion inspired over 100 comments. Does any BYT care to read it here in 2014?
^ Thanks Susan and PortiaEither way, both books sound like they''ll be well worth reading, and should give us plenty of insight and information about these two marvellous BYT era writers. I look forward to reading both - however and whenever we do it.
I don't think I'll get to the Waugh one until the end of January at the earliest. I have already committed to read quite a few other books - but I will get to it in the first few months of 2014. I'm really looking forward to it.
Portia wrote: "Speaking of Maugham, I read The Painted Veil with another group. I realty enjoyed the book and the discussion inspired over 100 comments. Does any BYT care to read it here in 2014?"Always up for W. Somerset Maugham Portia. I've adored those books by him that I've read.
100 comments! Wow.
Yes, Nigeyb's. Maugham gave his characters such depth that members found so many different aspects to agree on and disagree about. Got a tad intense, but no ad hominem. I highly recommend it.
^Thanks again Portia. It sounds wonderful.Now then, back to the question of Evelyn Waugh: A Biography by Selina Hastings ...
After a bit of chin stroking, and having withdrawn "Labels", I have now nominated Evelyn Waugh: A Biography by Selina Hastings for the February 2014 BYT non-fiction read. If it doesn't win we can do it as a hot read.
And then in March 2014, I'll nominate Nancy Mitford: A Biography by Selina Hastings .
Phew. That's that settled.
Sounds good to me, I would like to read both.
Sarah wrote: "Greg wrote: "Sarah, I was thinking that also. The imagination gets the scenarios going. Both of them in the Shakespeare and Co. bookshop at the same time. Either of them weren't well known, certain..."Sarah said 'I was thinking about your post earlier and had a sudden vision of a drama where Waugh and Orwell would be depicted separately arriving and staying in Paris then at some point their paths would cross in Shakespeare and Company - either with a conversation, or with one walking out as the other walks in, but not interacting at all.'
Sarah, yes, I'm with you. Absolutely love this. My natural modus operandi. In my review of Forster's A Room with a View I've brought Lucy forward to the '70s. That girl is one helluva keyboard player.
OK, we've got them in the bookstore at the same time. Why are they there? To hear a talk given by Joyce on Ulysses, which was published by Shakespeare and Co. in Feb. 1922. It fits! Waugh and Orwell are standing next to each other oblivious of who the other is. They start to chat…….
I'm thinking storyboard already. Where's Stephen Fry when you need him.
Apparently you're not the only ones to speculate on Waugh/Orwell..(I haven't read this.)
The Same Man: George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh in Love and War
Nigeyb wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Do you think either Orwell or Waugh would have visited the bookshop Shakespeare and Company in Paris while they were there?"I suspect they'd both have visited.
Sarah wrote: "What s..."
Nigeyb wrote - Seconded. At least you were actively engaging with whatever the teacher was discussing.
Nigeyb, paying attention? concentrating? 'Up to a point, old man'.
Susan wrote - I remember reading a lovely story about Bletchley, when Churchill visited. The Sgt Major was outraged as none of these boffins wanted to march or drill and they went into the room where one of the scientists (Alan Turing I think) was sitting in front of the fire in his carpet slippers and Churchill asked him what he was doing. "Thinking" came the reply. On that day, Churchill said they were absolved from any marching, etc, and to leave them alone to think, as their time was better spent that way. Shortly afterwards, the Enigma code was broken. Musing is a very important activity…
Susan, I remember reading years ago what Aldous Huxley said relating to this. He said the brain is a cerebral reducing valve. Most people's cerebral reducing valves work well, filtering all the incoming stimulus of the universe. People like Mozart and creatives have very poor reducing valves.
The book about Orwell and Waugh looks interesting.
^ I agree that that the book about Orwell and Waugh does indeed look interesting. Thanks Miss M. What a premise...
One climbed to the very top of the social ladder, the other chose to live among tramps. One was a celebrity at twenty-three, the other virtually unknown until his dying days. One was right-wing and religious, the other a socialist and an atheist. Yet, as this ingenious and important new book reveals, at the heart of their lives and writing, Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell were essentially the same man.
Very intriguing.
I should probably also post my review of Labels: A Mediterranean Journal here having recently finished it. Here it is...
Recently I have fully begun to appreciate the writing genius of Evelyn Waugh. I always realised he was good, but now I am starting to understand more fully his greatness. Throughout 2013 I have read, or reread, a number of his books, along with the splendid Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead by Paula Byrne. Having read all of his fiction, bar Sword of Honour, which I am poised to start, I was keen to sample some of Evelyn Waugh's non-fiction.
I am delighted to report that "Labels" is every bit as good as his wonderful fiction. In "Labels", we join Evelyn Waugh on a trip around the Mediterranean in 1929: he travels from Europe to the middle east and north Africa. Waugh chose the name "Labels" for this, his first travel book, because he thought the places he visited were already "fully labelled" in people's minds. Despite this, he brings a fresh and entertaining perspective to all that he encounters. His pen captures the local colour and the amusing idiosyncrasies of being a tourist. The writing is a delight, and each page is full of fun, amusing anecdotes, and incident. Even when he is bored, he still manages to write about it entertainingly. I look forward to reading more of his travel books, and more of his non-fiction.
Three things particularly struck me about this book:
1. The style is very chatty, humorous and self-deprecating, which is completely as odds with his misanthropic reputation.
2. His innate snobbishness results in some outrageous humour. For example, the cruise ship on which Waugh travels, occasionally encounters another cruise ship favoured by German tourists. He describes this ship as "vulgar" with inhabitants who are all "unbelievably ugly Germans" albeit "dressed with great courage and enterprise e.g. One man wearing a morning coat, white trousers and a beret".
3. By focussing on various minor details of his travels, Waugh provides the modern reader with all kinds of fascinating insights into tourism and travel in 1929. For example, the book starts with Waugh was taking a flight to Paris - he was one of only two passengers in a tiny plane, and this mode of transport was very new and unusual at the time. His detailed description of the experience is very informative about the early years of air passenger travel.
A very enjoyable read and, at a mere 174 pages, pleasingly quick and easy to read. 4/5
Mrs. K. A. Wheatley on Amazon.co.uk wrote a splendid review of Labels: A Mediterranean Journal (Published in US as "A Bachelor Abroad") by Evelyn Waugh...
What a great book. Evelyn Waugh is more famous for books like Brideshead Revisited and A Handful of Dust, both of which are fairly tragic. He also wrote satirical, dark comedies like Scoop and The Loved One. This is a non-fiction book in which he attempts the travel genre, with in my view, stunning success. He ambles about using a cruise ship to transport him wherever his whims take him, commenting upon some of the usual sights you would expect, but also taking in local peculiarities, and more importantly people watching.
He has a wonderful turn of phrase and a delightfully irreverent approach to his commentary, he often addresses the reader directly, which makes for a much more conversational, intimate journey for the reader. He takes in the delights of France, Greece, Italy, Egypt and Algeria to name but a few. His dialogue about discovering the works of Gaudi in Barcelona is particularly charming and enthusiastic and his juxtaposition of the serious and silly works beautifully.
This is a book of its time, and in this way reminded me very much of the travel books of Lawrence Durrell which I also loved. It is worth reading, not because you will ever be able to retrace his steps, but precisely because you won't, and you are able to enter into a unique series of snapshots of a bygone era. Delightful.
A very good summary. I'm so pleased I've made a start on Evelyn Waugh's non-fiction - another world of wonder to explore.
Greg wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Greg wrote: "Sarah, I was thinking that also. The imagination gets the scenarios going. Both of them in the Shakespeare and Co. bookshop at the same time. Either of them weren't well ..."Following on from this discussion, I wondered whether there were any books which included a mention of Shakespeare & Company and found this one: Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties.
It looks really interesting and certainly fits in with some of our recent themes. Where would be the best place to put it up as a suggestion?
Bright Young Things
Books mentioned in this topic
Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties (other topics)Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead (other topics)
Sword of Honour (other topics)
Labels (other topics)
Labels: A Mediterranean Journal (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Paula Byrne (other topics)Evelyn Waugh (other topics)
Selina Shirley Hastings (other topics)
W. Somerset Maugham (other topics)
Selina Shirley Hastings (other topics)
More...
Greg, also in the Bright Young Things group, read it as part of a larger compendium (called Waugh Abroad: Collected Travel Writing) and his positive comments inspired me to set up this thread for anyone who wants to discuss this book.
Here's the GR synopsis for Labels: A Mediterranean Journal....
Evelyn Waugh chose the name "Labels" for his first travel book because, he said, the places he visited were already "fully labelled" in people's minds. Yet even the most seasoned traveller could not fail to be inspired by his quintessentially English attitude and by his eloquent and frequently outrageous wit. From Europe to the Middle East and North Africa, from Egyptian porters and Italian priests to Maltese sailors and Moroccan merchants - as he cruises around the Mediterranean his pen cuts through the local colour to give an entertaining portrait of the Englishman abroad.
In addition to many favourable reviews, Labels: A Mediterranean Journal is a mere 174 pages so it should be a quick and easy read.
I look forward to reading everyone's thoughts about this book.