Bøger af Alec Waugh

This is not the only one of Alec Waugh's novels in which he has described the agonies of a couple who are desperately in love but cannot marry, for it is a situation that he has himself lived through. But it is in this novel that he has drawn most specifically upon experiences he has only alluded to in other books.His protagonist is Gordon Carruthers, who was also the hero of The Loom of Youth, that then shocking and revelatory novel of public-school life. Now transformed into a globe-trotting writer, Carruthers falls in love with a beautiful American socialite, and eventually, while her husband is away, they begin an affair. For reasons that only gradually become clear, their situation seems to be a cul-de-sac, leading to a denouement that is both surprising and, paradoxically, the only possible one.So Lovers Dream is an autobiographical novel in more ways than one. Into it Waugh put not only his love affair but his home, his literary agent, the details of his own life. This makes it both an enthralling tale and a candid self-revelation, and as always in this writer's work, an affectionate evocation of a time he has lived through.

Based on the author's own experience as an officer in the British Intelligence and packed with the most closely observed detail of the people, places and costumes of the Levant, The Mule on the Minaret is a long, colourful, fascinating story of wartime intelligence centred on Beirut and Baghdad.It is the story, primarily, of Noel Reid, a professor of History and Philosophy, (married, but not very happily) who is posted in 1941 to the Intelligence unit operating in the Lebanon. Here, he joins forces with Nigel Farrar, boss of MI5 in Beirut, and is soon involved in complex plans to suborn hand-picked Lebanese for service in the Allied cause, mainly to relay misleading information to the Germans in Istanbul. Woven into this complex business is also the story of his turbulent affair with Diana, a young woman who works for Farrar.The whole of Noel Reid's wartime adventures are seen in retrospect as he revisits the scene seventeen years later and meets again both Farrar and Diana. For them the war has brought a new, completely satisfying life; for himself he can at least say: "It is not difficult to live contentedly once you have realized that there is such a thing in the world as happiness, even though you have lost it, and know that you will never get it."

The bright summer sun faded into the shimmering Mediterranean as the young American painter began what was to be the five most perfect hours of his lifetime. It would be more than just an affair, a passionate encounter, and yet it would come to nothing. It would be a period of total enchantment that would remain to haunt him for the rest of his life, affecting his career, his code of behaviour, his entire existence. He sensed all this and yet he went to her, this woman he loved, this woman who could never be his...

First published in 1930, this discursive and absorbing travel-book offers, as the author says in his new Foreword, "a picture of a way of living that exists no longer." Hot Countries tells of a series of journeys in the Far East, the West Indies and the South Sea Islands when he was a young and light-hearted novelist seeking colour, romance and adventure.

Thirteen stories have been compiled as Alec Waugh looks back over his career as an author, and takes from his writing those which he feels are amongst his most personal creations, bringing them together into a panorama. Told in the first person, My Place in the Bazaar represents Waugh's varied experience and view of life as his enchanting stories take place in a variety of world-wide settings.

"The man who asks a woman what she wants deserves all that's coming to him!" This was Melanie's viewpoint and she always knew exactly what she wanted. Julia was different. She worked in a dress shop and she was often disturbed about her younger sister's morals. Both head strong, their differing character traits meant that their parents didn't know what to make of either of them. Here, against a background of smart and not-so-smart London we see the business girl and the girl-about-town meeting their difficulties in sex and in the daily routine.

Author, publisher, traveller, cricketer, lover of wine: Alec Waugh has been all these in the course of a life which has brought him a host of friends around the world. He is a warm person who knows a good friend when he sees one and is revered by all those with whom there has been mutual acceptance. This book contains his memories of many famous writers and some figures no longer so well remembered in the period between the wars. The section which will, no doubt, command the most attention is that devoted to the youth of his younger brother Evelyn. This throws invaluable light on the early years of a great but difficult man and reveals an insight which only one so close as a brother could have.

Part sentimental journey revisiting old well-loved scenes of former travels, and part search for new, out-of-the-way lands, Alec Waugh's travel book tells of a journey half-way round the world. But in new or old places, the author's sense of romance and adventure, his gift of combining past and present, his ability to create a mood and tell a story provide continuously enlightening and enlivening reading. The chief object of these travels was to visit the Seychelles Islands. This remote British colony, lost in the immensity of the Indian Ocean, is a world forgotten by the world, a world in itself. Alec Waugh's description of these tropical islands, their people and their history, ranks among the best of travel writing.

Alec Waugh describes his novel as an erotic comedy. It is the story of a respectable Treasury official, Victor Trail, and his wife Myra, whose marriage has lost its flavour, owing to Victor's clock-work schedule and Myra's bland acceptance of it. The unexpected revelation that Victor has suspiciously altered his routine rouses Myra out of her complacency, and her jealousy rapidly changes the shape of their lives. It leads her into a series of quite extraordinary adventures and demimonde activities which are altogether astonishing in a respectable married woman.Her discomfiture is made all the more excruciating by her new-found intimacy with Victor, who apparently knows nothing about her illegal actions and amazing amatory diversions-or does he?The reader of this novel of sex and international intrigue is in for a number of surprises. The only unsurprising thing about it is that it is a marvellous piece of entertainment by a past master of the art.

A rich tale centred around the lives of Marjorie Fairfield, a beautiful and penniless young woman who is the mistress of a wealthy business man; and the symbolically named Ransom Heritage, one of the many young men who were cast adrift after the First World War ended and who has been abruptly deprived of a sense of purpose, ambition and hope. Around these young people and their circle whirls the carefree society of fashionable post-war London - a raucous, glamorous and perhaps slightly shrill world of cocktails and nightclubs, tea dances and illicit tête-à-têtes. Waugh depicts a frenetic society where all too many people are 'kept' in some way - financially, by a well-off lover, inherited capital, an unwanted husband; or more figuratively, by a reputation, a title - a relationship, even.

An imaginary island on the Equator has suddenly achieved importance through the discovery of oil - what will happen to the men and women living under the tensions of life on this island? At one end of this island is the oil refinery where the members of the staff live in constant proximity to one another, and where emotions are heightened by the lack of privacy. The men are goaded by ambitions for power, while the women are drawn into affairs of love and passion. At the other end of the island is a hotbed of politics where a British diplomat is attempting to retain the island under Britain's sphere of influence; where an ailing king is fearful of what will happen when he is succeeded by a young and untrained prince; where a nationalist group is plotting to overthrow the monarchy and seize the oil fields. Waugh handles brilliantly his political plots, but always interwoven with them are the personal dramas of love and fear, of cowardice and courage. Rich in detail and characterisation, and in the exotic colours and customs of this strange land, the novel has constant suspense and variety.

Having married a man several years older than herself, Mary Montague craves love and attention to relieve the monotony of her days. Her husband, Gerald Montague, whose ill-running health is ruining his life, has little time to spare for his young wife. In Mary's lonely eyes, Barclaye Ashe is the most romantic thing happening. He fulfills Mary's need for love and it isn't long before Mary, in spite of herself, returns his love and embarks on idyllic days and balmy nights; exquisite moments of perfect ecstasy for Mary who thinks her happiness is complete. However, Mary's happy bubble is in danger of bursting when Jimmy Bruce and his daughter Kitty arrive on the island, forcing Mary to learn that time never stands still and all things must move relentlessly...Alec Waugh again brings all his powers as a novelist to unravel a densely emotional human situation.

This book tells the story of the Balliol family as they exist through the suffrage movement and the end of the Edwardian era to the Great War. The Balliol children are subject to the effects of the war - the harsh discipline and the subsequent laxness, the breakup of family loyalties, the post-war cynicism and, in the youngest child, the ultimate trend back to a sounder pattern of life. The action of this book, which is swift, continuous and dramatic, develops side by side with the plot of its theme that "to build a sanctuary, you must destroy a sanctuary"; that the destruction to which these thirty years have been witness was an inevitable and necessary part of progress. Vigorously pursuing the fortunes of an English family during the most turbulently shifting period in history, The Balliols combines the feeling of Cavalcade with the powerful narrative flow of the Forsythe Saga.

First published in 1975, this story tells of how a chance meeting in a café, a piece of grit delicately removed by a gentleman from a lady's eye give birth to an affair... a brief yet unrelenting emotional tug-of-war between two people whose spontaneous desire clashes head-on with the 'facts' of their existence.There is Anna, married to Graham and happily content with her home life and two children. There is Alec, trapped in a loveless marriage to cool, uninvolved Melanie, looking to his work as a doctor for fulfillment. Between them a flame is kindled that splendidly ignites a passion way beyond the well-constructed limits of their imaginations. Then comes the test. Can they transform their dream into a lasting love or must it founder on the hard rocks of reality? Brief Encounter is also a major film starring Sophia Loren and Richard Burton

Events that take place in an obscure oil-surveyor's camp in the French West Indies act as the link and the catalyst for three desperate groups of people thousands of miles apart - in London, New York and the picturesque old quarter of New Orleans.Upon often trivial acts depends matters of life and love and death, and as always Alec Waugh has distilled the drama and the truth from a wide spectrum of characters and situations. The fascination of this novel is that it is, in effect, a game of global consequences.

Presents the portrait not only of the city of Bangkok, but also of the dynasty and culture which created it. This work unravels the plots, coups, wars, assassinations, invasions and counter-coups of three hundred years of history.