The London Evening Standard reports that the Oxford University Press plans to republish all of Evelyn Waugh’s works, including his great novels, travel books, diary, biographies and his letters.

I discovered Waugh when I was in the Navy in my early 20’s and stationed in Scotland in the mid-1970s. As I planned to major in journalism when I left the Navy, I purchased a Penguin paperback of his satire of journalism, Scoop. I thought it was a great satirical novel, and I’ve reread it again and again over the years.

I went on to read his other satirical novels, such as Black Mischief  and Decline and Fall, as well as his World War II Sword of Honor series, consisting of Men at Arms, Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender. I also read his classic novel, Brideshead Revisited, the rest of his novels, his diary and several books about him.

A decade later, my wife and I enjoyed watching the weekly television installments of Brideshead Revisited on PBS. (I’ve not seen the new film version).

Waugh was not a pleasant man, according to all accounts and by his own admission, but he was a brilliant writer. And he was funny.

Waugh told a great story of how he had to endure sitting next to a man on a long train ride who was reading one of his satirical novels. Waugh said he was compelled to watch the man turning each page as he read, not laughing or smiling even for an instant.

Had Waugh sat next to me on a train while I was reading his novels, he would have seen me smiling and even laughing out loud.

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