Back when we ruled the world....😊😊😊

All I can say is ....wonderfully read, and charmingly written.
WHY is E W soo given to taking the p..s out of the English knobs?? Where would we be without then? They/ we discovered the world.
loved it....

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Very Funny

Very old-fashioned attitudes to race, but bewildered nature writer sent to report on a civil war in an East African country is superb. The description of The Beast and its offices reflect the tabloids of the period.

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Sublime

Doesn’t get better than this- perfect narration of a classic. A window into a bygone age- from wistful to high comedy- perfect!

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Days of the Past?

However amusing and downright funny, this novel is best taken as a product very much of its time and with care and judgement needed as to the narrative as it unfolds and some of the unacceptable language used in our days. The satire of the workings of the press needs no qualification, however, and as much holds true today as it did then. If not more so. This is consistently funny. Even though the novel is written with a colonial take on things, we can now see that there is the clear fact that the treatment of developing countries by those that would exploit them is evidenced in this novel and is not rejected. Waugh’s characters often amuse and this will please all listeners/readers. The novel has the daftness of P G Wodehouse in quantity. I enjoyed the opening and closing sections of the novel by far. Waugh was clearly stimulated in writing by his friend that transforms into Julie Stich and her sections are irresistibly funny regardless of her assumptions about the rightness of her behaviour. The Audible performance by the late Simon Cadell is pitch-perfect and a true joy to listen to. My ratings on this novel reflect the body of this personal review. Overall it is 4 stars afforded by the humour, not the story.

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1 person found this helpful

Superb

I haven’t read (or listened to) Evelyn Waugh in decades. Scoop was new to me. Beautifully written, very funny and superbly recounted by Simon Cadell. If it is possible to improve on Waugh, Mr Cadell has succeeded.

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the fantastic Beast - and where to find it

What did you like most about Scoop?

Perhaps THE classic satire of newspapers and newspapermen. Riotously funny, beautifully written and unerringly accurate.

What did you like best about this story?

Written in 1938, Scoop ostensibly portrays a vanished world. Yet to anyone still working in national newspapers in 2017, the remarkable thing is how little the industry itself has changed!

What about Simon Cadell’s performance did you like?

Cadell is brilliant - diffident, quietly expressive and a pleasure to listen to.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

When the Beast put the Boot in

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4 people found this helpful

great story be aware dated context

really great story with a 1930s news and historical feel. be aware that language and attitudes are offensive but were of their time

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Classic and consistently funny

Simon Cadell's reading of Scoop is pitch perfect. Waugh's comedy lends itself more to the written than to the spoken word, so the audio version lacks the laugh-out-loud factor of the printed book, but this is still a fabulous use of a credit. Highly recommended.

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First class!

Thoroughly enjoyed this book, Simon Cadell brilliant, chapter12 most entertaining !
Very much recommended ,one of the best from Evelyn Waugh.

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The perfect narration for such a tale!

Scoop is widely considered one of Waugh's best novels (although that view will fluctuate as the story's depictions of ethnic minorities are suspect!) Cadell has an understated gravitas which works very well for Waugh's writing style. I'd really recommend this audiobook for anyone who's interested in 'reading' some Waugh. It's only a shame that Cadell didn't record more before his early death.

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