Will This Do?: An Autobiography - Hardcover

9780786705191: Will This Do?: An Autobiography
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An outrageous and witty autobiography by the son of novelist Evelyn Waugh describes his difficult relationship with his father, education, non-stellar military service, and careers as a novelist, journalist, and columnist for the notorious Private Eye, during which he developed his reputation as a practioner of "the vituperative arts."

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About the Author:
Auberon Waugh is the editor of London's Literary Review and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph. He lives in England.
From Kirkus Reviews:
A minor, triflingly amusing memoir by the British journalist best known for being Evelyn Waugh's son. Though Waugh (The Last Word, 1980, etc.) has carved out a respectable niche as the editor of Londons Literary Review, has contributed to a number of other English publications, has even cranked out the occasional small book, he has not led the kind of life that usually justifies a memoir. He failed out of Oxford, accidentally shot himself in the army, then embarked on a literary/journalistic life, just this side of hackdom, with middling success. His account is all too typical of the gently retributive, dryly amusing, name-dropping memoir cranked out on the other side of the Atlantic, but it doesnt travel well. Unless youre a rabid anglophile, the passing squawks and the squabbles of the British literary world look, at several thousand miles removed, a lot like microbes fighting. And why do British memoirists insist on going on and on about their school days, as if the first 18 years were the only ones that mattered? Fans of Waugh pre, will find some worthwhile nuggets here. A letter to Nancy Mitford typifies his peevish, snitty attitude toward his children: ``My two eldest children are here and a great bore . . . the boy [Auberon] lives for pleasure and is thought a great wit by his contemporaries. I have tried him drunk & I have tried him sober.'' Waugh fils, fortunately, is made of sterner stuff, laving his childhood, indeed his life, with an appealing, gimlet-eyed acerbity. He has inherited much of his fathers gift for invective, and his account of the numerous libel actions hes been involved with (Englands libel laws notoriously favor the plaintiff) are some of the better non-Evelyn parts of this book. Will this do? Perhaps not quite. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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  • PublisherDa Capo Press
  • Publication date1998
  • ISBN 10 0786705191
  • ISBN 13 9780786705191
  • BindingHardcover
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages288
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780712637336: WILL THIS DO

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ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780712637336
Publisher: Random House UK, 1992
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9780099746904: WILL THIS DO

Random..., 1992
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