Will This Do? - Softcover

'Both an exuberant chronicle of English literary life and a very funny sendup.' -- James Atlas, The New Yorker

'Terrifically entertaining...funny, acerbic, and a little sad.' -- Michiko Kahutani, The New York Times

In this entertaining biography the late Auberon Waugh charts the events of the first 50 years of his life. A man whose style of writing made him either loved or hated, this autobiography offers readers a glimpse of the man behind the famously vituperative articles. The book covers his difficult childhood, his time at Oxford (cut short after he failed his first year examinations) and his subsequent career choice: 'There are only two possible careers for a man who has been sent down from Oxford. You must either become a schoolmaster or a spy,' pronounced his father. Auberon was to prove unsuccessful in applying to be the latter, and unable to stomach being the former. His career in journalism began when he landed a job on Queen magazine, and continued when he became the diary columnist on the Daily Telegraph. The story of his subsequent career, and his encounters with friends and with enemies, is told with wit and evident enjoyment. However ambivalent the reader's feelings at the start, it is impossible not to warm to the writer of this irreverent, amusing account.

An exceptionally prolific journalist, Auberon Waugh also wrote 5 novels, the first of which, The Foxglove Saga, he wrote while still at Oxford, and had published before his 21st birthday. Consider the Lilies (0-7551-0551-6) will be reissued alongside his autobiography in February. Paths of Dalliance (0-7551-0554-0), Who are the Violets Now (0-7551-0555-9), A Bed of Flowers (0-7551-0553-2), and The Foxglove Saga (0-7551-0552-4) will follow over the next few months.