public schoolboys there were, appalledrnby the number of earnest, working-classrnyouths whose humorless faces betokenedrnyoung men on the make.” It was equallyrnsobering to learn that few of hisrncontemporaries at university “had everrnheard of Evelyn Waugh, let alone readrnBrideshead.” But of course. The ambitiousrnworking-class youths had not yetrntaken to television in those days, and itrnwas not until John Mortimer’s adaptationrnof the Oxford novel for the screenrnthat Evelyn Waugh became as famous asrnhe is now.rnI start on this note because both inrnreal life—that is to say, the cultural life ofrnLondon during the last 30 years—and inrnhis own autobiography—the off-the-cuffrnsquib under review here—Bron Waughrnis shadowed, if not always overshadowed,rnby his electronically enlarged father.rnThis is absurd, but it often happens.rnDuring much of his life, Boris Pasternakrnhad to smile pleasantly and endure comparisonsrnwith his father, an academicrnpainter, laid on by family well-wishers. Irndo not want to argue that there is notrnmuch in Waugh pere that is as funny asrnanvthing in Jerome K. Jerome, or as preciselyrnobserved as anything in SomersetrnMaugham. I merely wish to point outrnthat without Waugh fik and his band ofrnmerry men at Private Eye and elsewhere,rnLondon as I have known it would notrnhave existed. It may not exist muchrnlonger anyway, but at least an honest reviewrnmay repay an aesthetic debt for onernwriter’s attempts at keeping alive what isrntruly worthy of preservation.rnBetter than any novel by anybody’s father,rnWaugh’s journalism prepares us forrnlife in the conhnuous present of a civilizationrnon its last legs. This treasure isrncollected in the two volumes of his magazinernor newspaper diaries. Four CrowdedrnYears (1976) and A Turbulent Decadern(1985), and two additional volumes ofrnnewspaper column-type essays. In the Lion’srnDen (1978) and Another Voicern(1986). The last time I looked, “AnotherrnVoice” was still running in the Spectator,rnwhile the Telegraph was continuing tornpay Waugh to vent his emerald spleenrnalongside my friend Michael Wliartonrnin “Way of the World.” The diary genre,rnas adapted to journalism, is long lost inrnthe United States, and it is now next tornimpossible to describe to an Americanrnaudience the hideous excitement ofrnopening a mainstream broadsheet torncheck whom or what Bron Waugh isrnskewering this morning. “My own smallrngift,” he notes here, is “for making therncomment, at any given time, which peoplernleast wish to hear.”rnWhen Conrad Black bought the Telegraph,rnwhere Waugh’s column had beenrnappearing since 1981, he appointedrnPeregrine Worsthorne as the editor. Atrnone point in this memoir we learn, apparentlyrnapropos of nothing whatsoever,rnthat “Claudie Worsthorne, wife of therngreat Conservative thinker” once toldrnWaugh that “her husband wore a hairnetrnto bed.” But when we later read that, onrnWorsthorne’s elevation, “things did notrngo quite so smoothly” with the SundayrnTelegraph column, the frivolous intelli-rnOnly You CanrnHalt the .rnSilent Invasion! Y irnAmerica is now experiencing the greatest wave ofrnimmigration in its history. Three Presidential Commissionsrnhave warned that unless the trend is slowed it will have therngravest consequences for the future of America. Theirrnwarnings have been ignored. Why?rnWhy do the multinational corporations want America torntear down its borders?rnHow can a country of 270 million people have a “laborrnshortage”?rnWhy is America importing millions of the world’s poor whenrnwe already have 36 million Americans in poverty?rnHow has excessive immigration depressed wage rates andrnjob opportunities for America’s poor?rnWhat is the impact of today’s unprecedented immigrationrnlevels on education, crime and taxes?rnThe Midwest Coalition to Reform Immigration (MCRI)rnhas the answers and a strategic plan to save America’srnfuture. But we must act fast and we can’t win without yourrnhelp. Just 30 minutes a month of your time canrnreverse the trend that threatens the future of allrnAmericansrnCall MCRI at 1-800-709-0711 for a free copy of ourrnnewsletter or contact us by e-mail at [email protected] our Web page www.enteract.com/~mcri97rnOCTOBER 1998/29rnrnrn