 First edition | |
| Author | Evelyn Waugh |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Travel literature |
| Publisher | Duckworth |
Publication date | 1946 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 318 |
| OCLC | 170209 |
| LC Class | G469.W3 1946 |
When The Going Was Good is a 1946anthology of fourtravel books written by English authorEvelyn Waugh.
The five chapters of the book are fragments from the travel booksLabels (1930),Remote People (1931),Ninety-Two Days (1934), andWaugh In Abyssinia (1936). The author writes that these pages are all that he wishes to preserve of the four books.[1]
Waugh begins the cruise atMonaco; he writes: "I soon found my fellow passengers and their behaviour in the different places we visited a far more absorbing study than the places themselves." AtNaples he visits theChurch of Sansevero. The ship stops atCatania in Sicily, and atHaifa. It continues toPort Said, where he and two other passengers "spent two or three evenings investigating the night-town.... We set out... rather apprehensively, with a carefully calculated minimum of money, and life-preservers...."
AtCairo he stays at theMena House Hotel, and atSakkara he visits the ancient tombs. He visitsMalta andCrete, where he goes to the museum "to admire the barbarities of Minoan culture", and visitsCnossos, whereArthur Evans is reconstructing the palace. Continuing the tour, other places briefly described areConstantinople,Athens,Algiers,Gibraltar,Seville andLisbon.
Waugh travels toAddis Ababa inEthiopia, to attend the coronation ofRas Tafari. At the hotel he meetsIrene Ravensdale, a friend. Waugh writes: "It is toAlice in Wonderland that my thoughts recur in seeking some historical parallel for life in Addis Ababa.... the peculiar flavour of galvanised and translated reality...." He attends the ceremony. Delegations afterwards leave wreathes at the mausoleum ofMenelik andZauditu. Waugh and Irene Ravensdale are among about eighty guests invited to lunch with the Emperor.
At the suggestion of an American academic who is attending the events (named "Professor W" in the book: this wasThomas Whittemore[2]), he and Waugh visitDebra Lebanos, where there is a monastery. Waugh returns to Addis Ababa; he accompanies the British consul inHarar, Mr Plowman, to Harar, and there meets the bishop, who recallsArthur Rimbaud living in the city.
Waugh visitsAden, and studies the buildings and people. He meets a local businessman, and a walk with him turns out to involve strenuous rock-climbing. Waugh has an audience with the Sultan ofLahej. He sails toZanzibar, where he stays at the English Club; he finds the heat intolerable. He visitsPemba Island. He leaves forKenya; atNairobi he is a temporary member of theMuthaiga Country Club, and goes to the races with other members. He drives through theRift Valley, admiring the scenery: "all around for immense distances successive crests of highland"; atLake Naivasha he stays with a farmer atNjoro. He goes toUganda and stays atJinja.
Conscious of an inclination to return to Europe, Waugh does not pause during the remaining journey. AtKigoma he travels on a steamer onLake Tanganyika, enduring a thunderstorm, to Albertville (nowKalemie). AtKabalo he travels toBukama along the river by paddle-steamer, then by train toElizabethville. There is a six-day train journey toCape Town, from where he sails toSouthampton.
Waugh sails toGeorgetown in South America, where he prepares a journey throughGuyana. He accompanies Mr Bain, the District Commissioner, for part of the way, by train toNew Amsterdam, up theBerbice River by paddle-steamer for three days, and on horseback through grassland and bush for six days to Bain's office in the only house atKurupukari, a clearing by theEssequibo River. Across the river, Waugh continues with local assistants, until they reach theIreng River at the border withBrazil; Waugh stays for ten days at themissionSt. Ignatius.
After another four days' travelling Waugh crosses theBranco River and arrives atBoa Vista. He is disappointed: "The Boa Vista of my imagination had come to grief.... All that extravagant and highly improbable expectation had been obliterated like a sand castle beneath the encroaching tide." He stays at the Benedictine Mission. He abandons his idea of continuing toManaos, noticing that people are often in fever. "It seemed to me a poor gamble to risk becoming semi-invalid for life for the dubious interest of a voyage down the Rio Branco." He recrosses the river to begin the return journey.
Waugh is in Addis Abada as a war correspondent to cover theSecond Italo-Ethiopian War. He is one of several journalists there includingPatrick Balfour. There is nothing to report, so he travels with Balfour toDirre-Dowa andJijiga; there he finds minor stories which are ignored by his newspaper in London, who tells him he has missed something important in Addis Ababa. Returning there, he finds there are more journalists: "They showed almost every diversity which the human species produces." An announcement from the palace, that Italy has dropped bombs onAdowa, turns out to be a mistake.
An attempt to reachDessye fails because he does not have permission; he later successfully arrives. There is nothing to do. "Several journalists had already been recalled... now a general retreat began." His newspaper dismisses him, and he is able to fulfil his wish to spend Christmas inBethlehem.