A Review By Keith Smith

Pure nostalgia for a world we have lost, no wonder it was such a succesful costume drama on tv. But, of course, the book is better than the screen…as we nearly always find. Everyone is familiar with the story of Charles Ryder’s infatuation with the Marchmains and the rapidly-disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. Enchanted first by Sebastian at Oxford, then by his doomed Catholic family, in particular his remote sister, Julia, Charles comes finally to recognize only his spiritual and social distance from them. And that is the nub. Evelyn Waugh was striving all his life to ‘fit in’, and this book is perhaps one of the greatest insights we have into his own life. And if you really want to know how all this stacks up, you really must read Mad World : Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead by Paula Byrne, a terrific biography.

The Classics is a much neglected area in our shop, tucked away as it is upstairs, but in it you will find not only some of the greatest literature, but also zappy writing, terrific stories, pathos and humour, and page turning plots. Brideshead Revisited is to be much admired for its elegance and lyricism, its powerful narrative and wit….a ‘must-read’.