Evelyn Waugh

Guy Crouchback, determined to get into the war, takes a commission in the Royal Corps of Halberdiers. His spirits high, he sees all the trimmings but none of the action. And his first campaign, an abortive affair on the West African coastline, ends with an escapade which seriously blots his Halbadier copybooks.

Following the inglorious career of Guy Crouchback with the Royal Corps of Halberdiers in Men at Arms, Officers and Gentlemen sees him attached to a Commando unit in the Hebrides. Undergoing training on the Isle of Mugg, Guy discovers that the whiskey flows freely and H.M. Forces have to show proper respect for the omnipotent Laird. But the high comedy of Mugg is followed by the bitterness of Crete - and all the chaos and indignity of a total withdrawal...

Tony and Brenda Last and their son, John Andrew, live an idyllic life in the huge Victorian house that is the symbol of Tony's family pride. The chance arrival of a penniless scrounger irrevocably shatters the gentle balance of their lives.

520 Upper-class scoundrel Basil Seal, mad, bad and dangerous to know, creates havoc wherever he goes, much to the despair of the three women in his life - his sister, mother and mistress. And when Neville Chamberlain declares war on Germany, it seems the perfect opportunity for more action and adventure. So Basil follows the call to arms and goes forth to have his finest hour - as a war hero. His instincts for self-preservation come to the fore in...

With a little misguided help from some friends, Black Emperor Seth attempts to modernize the kingdom of Azania, off the African coast. The result is home-made currency, a birth control gala festival, the rightful ruler's demise at his own coronation ceremony, and a good deal more mischief.

In "Scoop, " surreptitiously dubbed "a newspaper adventure," Waugh flays Fleet Street and the social pastimes of its war correspondents as he tells how William Boot became the star of British super-journalism an how, leaving part of his shirt in the claws of the lovely Katchen, he returned from Ishmaelia to London as the "Daily's Beast's" more accoladed overseas reporter.

Mistaken for a foreign correspondent, a mild-mannered wildlife writer is sent to a fictional African country on the eve of a war. He flounders through a sea of wild rumors and sleazy journalists desperate for a story.