It’s an exciting read that brings to life what it’s like to try and secure some of the world’s biggest and most exclusive interviews, with her saving *that* interview with Prince Andrew, the piece de resistance, till last.

Socialite Mrs Stitch recommends novelist John Boot to Lord Copper of the Daily Beast to cover a political crisis in Ishmaelia. The newspaper’s foreign editor by mistake invites William Boot, who writes a countryside column for the newspaper. William is a naive and hopelessly inexperienced provincial young man. Come si usa dire, la fortuna del principiante lo protegge: e mentre i suoi colleghi concorrenti annaspano nel vuoto e nel nulla, giocando a chi inventa la notizia più grossa, il nostro inviato speciale riesce per caso a scoprire che in effetti i comunisti stamno preparando un colpo di stato. Scrive il pezzo, lo manda, fa lo scoop, diventa famoso: ma per sua somma gioia, che la fama paventa ed evita, gli onori ricadono sul suo omonimo mai partito. Stannard, Martin. Evelyn Waugh: The Early Years, 1903–1939. W. W. Norton & Company, New York 1987, p. 408. ISBN 0-393-02450-4.

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That said, it's delightful. I'm of course reminded of A. J. Liebling's war journalism. The plot should be a model for plots everywhere. The odd mixture of affection and contempt is characteristic of the best humor writing (see, for example, Diary of a Nobody or Cold Comfort Farm). I'm going a bit too far here: it's clear that Waugh finds the expropriation of Africa's natural resources by European colonial powers distasteful. And that's something. Peter Florence, chair of the judges and a literary festival producer, said: ‘[Mortimer] approaches the world with a sly, mischievous smile. I guess this is what happens when you turn a brilliant, oblique comedic attention to life. Scoop is a scathing satire on journalistic policy and practice that has been plaguing the world from the time of its birth. Nothing much has changed from the time of its publication, and the story is still apt for today. So, one can say that this is and will be a timeless tale. This is a funny and well written novel and was in the Observer list of the one hundred greatest novels of all time. The satire of the newspaper industry still has relevance today and is very pertinent. William Boot is not unlike his historical counterpart Candide – a simple and naive young man confronted by the villany and absurdity that exists outside his sheltered world. He is living in peaceful rural seclusion, happy to be writing his articles on countryside matters. Because of the incompetence of other people he is pulled out of this simple and untroubled life and plunged into an almost farcical situation. He is surrounded by liars, cheats, and frauds; his gullibility is preyed upon by charlatans; and like many naive innocents he falls in love with an unscrupulous vamp.

Partly based on his journalistic experience, working for the Daily Mail, and partly based on his criticism of the foreign policy of the British government, Scoop tells the story of how the fictional country of Ishmaelia (said to be representing Ethiopia) the plaything of the opposing Western factions. Waugh tells a hilarious story of how the news is obtained, the methods of unintentional bullying and manipulations, and how it's exaggerated to suit the "public" policy as defined by the top notches of the newspaper.

Waugh fu inviato dal Daily Mail (che nel romanzo diventa il Daily Beast) in Africa Orientale come reporter per scrivere dell’invasione fascista dell’Abissinia, quella che viene ricordata come Seconda Guerra Itali-Abissina (dall’ottobre del 1935 al maggio del 1936). Quando Waugh ritenne d’aver scovato la notizia bomba, uno scoop, mandò il suo pezzo via telegrafo scritto in latino per aggirare possibili jntercettazioni della concorrenza: il giornale ricevette il pezzo, ma lo trovò incomprensibile e lo eliminò. Lord Copper of the Beast recommends Boot for a knighthood – but it is awarded in error to the novelist John Boot, the author of smutty stories. True or not it’s a story about the power of the press and the ability of unscrupulous publishers to ‘manufacture’ news. I was reminded of it immediately on reading Evelyn Waugh’s novel Scoop, a satire centring on the pursuit of a non-existent story about a non-existent war. The Pension Dressler stood in a side street and had, at first glance, the air rather of a farm than of a hotel. Frau Dressler's pig, tethered by one hind trotter to the jamb of the front door, roamed the yard and disputed the kitchen scraps with the poultry. He was a prodigious beast. Frau Dressler's guests prodded him appreciatively on their way to the dining-room, speculating on how soon he would be ripe for killing. The milch-goat was allowed a narrower radius; those who kept strictly to the causeway were safe, but she never reconciled herself to this limitation and, day in, day out, essayed a series of meteoric onslaughts on the passers-by, ending, at the end of her rope, with a jerk which would have been death to an animal of any other species. One day the rope would break; she knew it and so did Frau Dressler's guests." (156)