Auberon Waugh WILL THIS DO? First Edition Signed Autobiography
roll over the image to zoom in
Auberon Waugh WILL THIS DO? First Edition Signed Autobiography
First edition, first print hardback of WILL THIS DO?: The First Fifty Years of Auberon Waugh - An Autobiography, by Auberon Waugh. Published by Century - Random Century Limited, London, in 1991. Signed by Waugh on a special plate bearing the typed words ' Will This Do? I hope so ....' attached to the half title page.The book is in very good condition (clean black cloth boards and silver lettering on spine) with minor wear to the dust jacket, which is price clipped (light creasing to the edges, some loss to the ISBN sticker attached to the back cover). Internally, the pages are clean and tight and there are no tears and no other inscriptions.
Auberon Alexander Waugh (1939 2001) was a writer, journalist and satirist, and eldest son of Evelyn Waugh. He was widely known by his nickname 'Bron'. As a young man, Waugh wrote five novels that were quite well received, but gave up fiction, for fear of unfavourable comparisons with his father.
"Auberon Waugh has a genius for saying the things people least want to hear. This combined with his unmatched mastery of the art of vituperation, his gifts for hilarious fantasy and for an unsettling use of irony has drawn comparisons with Jonathan Swift. In their day his novels, particularly The Foxglove Saga and Consider the Lilies, led to his being acclaimed as the most brilliant young novelist around. Today he is the most brilliant, and if not exactly the best-loved, then certainly the most controversial journalist of his generation.
Now he gives us his own view of a life spent, though he would deny it, at the heart of the British literary establishment. The milestones in his relationship with his father were the Lavery Scandal, the Great Banana Incident and the Great Debacle of July 1955. His father described him as 'clumsy and dishevelled, sly without intellectual, aesthetic or spiritual interest'. Here Auberon Waugh uses his right of reply.
Some of his father's friends, such as Graham Greene and John Betjeman, treated him kindly, but it is Cyril Connolly and others who snubbed him who have preoccupied him. Born into the vastness of Pixton Park he became engaged in class warfare at a very early age with the evacuee children. At school he received a record number of beatings. In the army he accidentally machine-gunned himself in Cyprus and found himself confined to a hospital bed, receiving many kind visitors including the Governor's wife who insisted on reading him the works of Lawrence Durrell. An inglorious early exit from Oxford scarcely left him time to lament the comparative lack of public schoolboys. A career in journalism of over thirty years has included work for most newspapers, most notably both Telegraphs. But perhaps he has been happiest at Private Eye and The Spectator, writing for them in their respective golden ages and finding his natural position of prominence among the funniest men of his generation, a group of friends that includes Richard Ingrams, Peter Cook and Willie Rushton.
One never knows quite how to take Auberon Waugh.Will This Do? makes matters worse."
288 pages. Illustrated with a section of collection of black & white photographs on glossy pages.
ISBN: 0 7126 3733 8
We use industry standard packaging
Please refer to the statement of delivery below:
Items are sent promptly and well packed
Please do check our other listings
* Combined postage if more than one item is purchased
Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.
£0.00
£14.99
Earn42
reward points
reward points
Send this to a friend
Auberon Waugh WILL THIS DO? First Edition Signed Autobiography