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Article: THE GREAT WAUGH! He was a spiteful snob and a shameless drunk. One hundred years ago today the Brideshead author was born - and still there's no one to match ...
- Article from:
- Daily Mail (London)
- Article date:
- October 28, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: JOHN MORTIMER
A HUNDRED years ago today, there was born a satirist sharper than Private Eye, a comic novelist who could make you laugh aloud as often as P.
G. Wodehouse, whom he greatly admired.
He was an expert on the empty lives of the smart social set, and the meaningless pomposity of politicians. He was the great eccentric who would turn his ear trumpet off if the conversation of his neighbour at dinner bored him.
He achieved a near-perfect prose style.
His novels can be read and reread with increasing pleasure. And now that the smart set is just as vacuous and the politicians even more pompous, he is desperately ...