3. Black Mischief - Not Black and White

Many people hold Evelyn Waugh to be among the best British writers of the 20th Century - Russell Kane is one of them. To mark the 60th anniversary of Waugh's death, Russell delves into seven of his most important works.

While Waugh has been unfashionable for some time, Kane believes it’s high time we turn back to him. He believes he was way ahead of his time and, in his books, he reveals ourselves to ourselves and uncovers clues for how we should live our lives today.

Over seven episodes, we discover that Waugh can tell us everything we need to know about the cluttered corridors of English culture - its class system, media, cult of masculinity, colonial hang-ups: everything it’s made of, good and bad. Not only does Waugh show our society for what it is, but he demonstrates how it can be hacked - infiltrated by savvy interlopers like himself. And, in him, Russell sees a kindred spirit.

Waugh may be a divisive figure, who has the public reputation of a pantomime villain. Some say his vitriolic streak, cultural insensitivity and idolisation of the upper classes should condemn him to the male, pale and stale literary past - but Russell suggests instead that he was prescient, not reactionary; he was ahead of his time. Waugh holds the least flattering of mirrors up to us - and actually, it’s not Waugh but what we see that we don’t like.

In episode 3, we take Black Mischief (1932) off the shelf – a book about racism. There are two ways to view this book: was Waugh a small-minded racist or a satirical observer of the small minded-racist? This book reflects our complex attitudes to race. Can Russell defend Waugh?

Contributors:
Dr Paula Byrne, author of Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead
Ekow Eshun, curator and author of Black Gold of the Sun
Sophia Waugh, granddaughter of Evelyn Waugh

Archive:
Face to Face (BBC television, 1960) - interview with Evelyn Waugh by John Freeman

Producer: Dom Byrne & Freya Hellier
Executive Producer: Rosamund Jones
Editor: Kirsten Lass
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
Sound Mix: Jon Calver

A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4