Of crested grebes and misplaced badgers

A month or so ago I bought a worn copy of "Scoop" by Evelyn Waugh from Half Price Books.

Its subhead was "A Novel About Journalists," but apart from knowing of Waugh's satirical tendencies, I didn't know what the book was about. I figured it would involve poking fun at newspapers and newspaper people.

It did, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Summary: a mellow-mannered Englishman by the name of Boot (writer of the inconsequentially rustic "Lush Places" column) is suddenly pulled from his family's crumbling but comfortable countryside manor to meet with his employers in London.

Boot is filled with distress, as he knows his sister Priscilla's secret prank of replacing "badgers" with "crested grebes" prior to mailing his latest column, has been discovered. He has already received numerous readers' responses varying from derisive to skeptical at the incorrect references toward crested grebes throughout the column, which Waugh describes as "exceedingly painful."

The Great Crested Grebe

Upon Boot's overwhelming arrival in busy London, however, Boot learns that he has not been summoned to be fired: he has been summoned for a much more compelling reason.

Boot's life is never the same again. You'll have to read the book to find out why.

I will say that Boot is a fairly good example of a character who may not necessarily be Chestertonian, but who definitely exhibits Chestertonian habits. Throughout Boot's misadventure after misadventure, he views it all with childlike wonder, and deep down inside, wishes to be home again among the crested grebes and badgers and even questing voles.

A work of satire that actually gets its point across, and additionally has quite a satisfying ending.