Folk Britannica

So, after listening to some folk music this evening based on that seines of documentaries from the Beeb last year , I thought i would like to do a folk DJ set down at the Northern Lights if i get a Wednesday night slot. As yet I have no dates booked for the NL joint, which at the moment is fine by me, although come next month I really need to get some dates confirmed. My DJ itchiness is coming out in a rash.

Book 4 - Paula Byrne "Mad World ; Evelyn Waugh And The Secrets of Brideshead"

Paula Byrne "Mad World ; Evelyn Waugh And The Secrets of Brideshead" (Harper Press)






There was a time, in particular before World War One, when the aristocratic class ran the country. They went to the best schools, went to university and then proceeded smoothly to some position in Government until they arranged for their father to be killed in a hunting accident and took their seat in the House of Lords, looking forward to a succession of good dinners and putting a serious dent in the global supply of claret. Of course the War changed all that as the upper class were exposed as not fit to lead a conga line, never mind a charge at the enemy.

Reading 'Mad World', one is left with the profound impression that it's a wonder the aristocracy managed to stop buggering one another long enough to do anything at all. There's so much sodomy going on that it's a rare page that doesn't see somebody plunging into a chum with indecent haste before getting hammered and making a spectacularly bad marriage to a wife who turns increasingly ill tempered as she discovers that she is second in her husband's affection to the entire male staff (indoor and outdoor) of the estate.

With all the men drinking and buggering the help, it's little wonder that the women get a little bitter and come over as somewhat brittle. At least that's the impression that one gets from the author. One also gets the distinct feeling that the author doesn't like any of the people she is writing about. This makes for an uncomfortable read, quite appropriate for a book largely about buggery.

There's not a lot to like in the characters described here. Fun in literature, in real life somebody who is bent on self destruction can be quite dull. What it did do very well was draw a very clear line between being a drunk and being an alcoholic.

There is, at the heart of the book, a tragedy that is profound, and profoundly well described. It's the idea, the very idea, of unfulfilled promise. It is quite apparent that if one goes to Eton, those are the best days of your life. Everything else is a failure to fulfill your early promise. When you go to college you don't dazzle as well as you did at school, and then your career isn't the success that was expected when you were at college. Basically, unless you go straight from school to be the first man on Mars, you're a disappointment.

It's profoundly sad. Who is anyone to say that another has not fulfilled their promise until the lid is firmly screwed down on the box - and even then?

The aristocracy are portrayed as wild and brittle. Everyone's drunk, everyone's screwing one another, or others, everyone's either rich or festering in poverty and there is a constant merry go round of aristocracy staying with one another. This allows the bed-hopping, buggery and boozing that marked the era. Luckily everyone looks really well dressed and has sensible hair, and the veneer of respectability and glamour lends the whole of the proceedings a sort of louche charm.

It's a fascinating insight into the life, as it was lived then, of the aristocracy. At the same time, one could see the same drama of family disgrace, heavy drinking, infidelity and bad behaviour as being played out on any sink estate in the country. If you are drinking your breakfast of car-boot vodka from a bottle, it's squalid, if you get your butler to decant your breakfast Champagne into jugs, it's glamorous.

Interesting but not enjoyable, and it's not a book I would recommend to others  because I'm not sure that buggery and alcohol is everybody's cup of tea. Well,, alcohol is mine.