Shurely shome mishtake...

[WendyWeber]

I had no idea (though on consideration I shurely should have realised!) that the phrase derived from Bill Deedes

Shertainly, it wassh...

"Scoop" from E.Waugh is one of the funniest books I have ever read. I still use the phrase, where appropriate, "Up to a point"..when 'no' is the intent.

Oh Pan, I do too (including "Lord Copper" though, do you?)

truly brilliant phrase...

Dear Bill,
off to the ether now, electric soup glass in the sky,
use to love dear bill you and dennis,

what will EJ Thribb
have to say

goodbye..

always meant to read evelyn waugh..ease me in what do you guys recommend..i loved brideshead (tv)

WW.

no, I just do the line, and I found it's best when discussing an absolute eg
"Are you pregnant?
"Umm up to a point."

"Did you clean the bathroom today?"
"Umm up to a point."

suzy - I'm not sure there is a particular place to start. There is brilliant satire in all of them. But Scoop would be a fine place to start. Ridicules journalism, in this case, 'can you actually report on a war zone without actually being there?

You have read Scoop or not, suzy?

I most like the Vile Bodies series - I think it's Vile Bodies, about the Bright Young Things? Will check.

Oh, and The Loved One. Superb. "Your little xxx is wagging her tail in heaven tonight, thinking of you"

Decline and Fall and A Handful of Dust are the others - I think - haven't read them for a long time and I'm not certain they're exactly a set anyway.

(I used to be quite intelligent before I had kids and got old!)

Great isn't it? Sometimes the humour is almost vague, and at other times it is up front, sometimes cruel, but hilarious.

A Handful of Dust ends with the 'hero' being held captive in the South American jungle, by a loon who has failing eyesight..so before the loon will tell him how to get out the jungle, he demands the hero reads the entire works of Charles Dickens to him, sometimes cruelly adding "just read that bit again - it's my favourite". A living hell.

He was a dear, dear man

pan..ww..
ta, will check out scoop and the others mentioned..i have just always meant to check him out, twil now

my nose isn't red enough...