Paula Byrne: belief

Transcript context

…Do you read Waugh as actually a snob and a misanthrope, or is that a put-on and that actually he’s very good-natured about humanity? The latter. I completely think it’s put on. I argued this really strongly in my book, that everything was a joke. Everything was up for a joke. He played the part of the grumpy colonel, which he talked about himself. Deep down, he was incredibly kind to his friends. He was deeply sensitive. He wasn’t a snob. Again, he makes fun of the aristocracy in Brideshead, even though people don’t always see that. I don’t think he was any of those things. I think he was a snob about cleverness. I think he was a bit of an intellectual snob. I think if you were really stupid, he wouldn’t have much time for you, and maybe that’s a British thing too, but he really valued wit and good conversation. But it didn’t matter whether you were — during the war, his bagman adored him. There’s an interview where they’re trying to get this bagman to sort of say, “Oh, he’s a horrible snob, wasn’t he?” He said, “No, he is absolutely lovely.” “Did he shout at you? Was he horrible to you during the war?” “No, no, no. He couldn’t have been kinder.” He was somebody who knew him intimately during the war. He just did not have a bad word to say about him. It’s become a bit of a parody, and he became a bit of a parody of himself. He parodied himself, but I think he played that part. For me, he certainly was not a snob. If I understand your life history correctly, you and your husband come from very different status bands in British society. How do you think that shapes the books and biographies you write?…

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