William Cook

Another blessed Waugh memorial

In A Scribbler in Soho, Naim Attallah describes Waugh as his mentor, hero and idol. But the riddle of the journalist’s split personality is left unresolved

Auberon Waugh was happy to admit that most journalism is merely tomorrow’s chip paper but, of all the journalists of his generation, his penny-a-line hackery seems most likely to endure.

What made him so special? Like all great writers, it was a combination of style and substance. He had a lovely way with words — he could write a shopping list and make you want to read it — and his libertarian diatribes were wonderfully unorthodox, lambasting pompous humbugs on the left and on the right.

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