Evelyn Waugh never wanted to be a writer, still less a novelist. That may explain both the weakness of his books and their remarkable and continuing popularity. Readers love an amateur with no intellectual pretensions - one of themselves, in fact - who is also an expert craftsman: and Waugh's novels are as solidly made as the best furniture. Among his most genuinely enthusiastic recollections was the 'brilliant and completely speechless little cabinet-maker who could explain nothing and demonstrate everything. To see him cutting concealed dovetails gave me the thrill which, I suppose, others get from seeing their favourite batsman at the wicket or bullfighter in the ring.' In the same magazine article of 1937 he remarked that Dickens never forgave his parents for trying 'to force him into a blacking factory instead of letting him write' and claims that he had made desperate efforts to get a job with a firm which, among other things, manufactured blacking. 'But the manager was relentless. It was no use my thinking of blacking. That was not for the likes of me.'

LRB 4 December 1986 | PDF Download