ISBN: 9780141187495

Synopsis Lord Copper, newspaper magnate and proprietor of the Daily Beast, has always prided himself on his intuitive flair for spotting ace reporters. That is not to say he has not made the odd blunder, however, and may in a moment of weakness make another. Acting on a dinner-party tip from Mrs Algernon Smith, he feels convinced that he has hit on just the chap to cover a promising little war in the African Republic of Ishmaelia. One of Waugh’s most exuberant comedies, Scoop is a brilliantly irreverent satire of Fleet Street and its hectic pursuit of hot news.

Bookclub Review This book is about a Journalist William Boot, a young naïve man who lives in genteel poverty far from the iniquities of London, and who writes a nature column for a national newspaper. Mistaken for a famous novelist who shares his surname, he is pulled into becoming a foreign correspondent and sent to the fictional African state of Ishmaelia where a civil war threatens to break out. There, despite his total ineptitude, he accidentally manages to get the ‘scoop’.
The novel is partly based on Waugh’s own experience working for the Daily Mail, when he was sent to cover Mussolini’s expected invasion of Abyssinia, what was later known as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.

Although the summary might not sound like it but this book is funny. Sometimes laugh-out-loud funny but mainly it is a parody about politics, society and sensational journalism. The book is clearly set in the time it was written (1938) but only exchange the words ‘newspaper’ with ‘TV’ and ‘Africa’ with ‘Near East’ and the story could be today. And still would be funny.
The book was easy to read, enjoyable and we just liked it.
Scoop was included in The Observer list of the 100 greatest novels of all time, and ranked 75th in the Modern Library list of best 20th-century novels.