When Waugh went to war...

QUESTION Did Evelyn Waugh support Mussolini’s invasion of Abyssinia?

EvElyn Waugh (1903-1966) was an English writer regarded by many as the most brilliant satirical novelist of his day, though many will remember him for Brideshead Revisited (1945).

Waugh did, indeed, support Mussolini. according to biographer Philip Eade, Waugh was hired by the Mail as a correspondent to cover the abyssinian crisis in 1935 and was ‘an unflinching advocate’ of the Italian invasion.

he saw abyssinia as a barbarous country, ruled by a violent government, and believed that Mussolini would be the most effective barrier against hitler.

‘ In the matter of practical politics, it is certain that their [the Italian] government would be for the benefit of the Ethiopian Empire and for the rest of africa,’ he concluded.

In later years, Waugh changed his tune. Eade quotes a letter in which he says: ‘ I am sick of abyssinia and of my book about it. It was fun being pro-Italian when it was an unpopular and (I thought) losing cause.’

Frank Jones, Coventry.

QUESTION Does anyone remember a health tonic called Indian Brandee?

FuRthER to the earlier answer, we always kept a bottle of Bell, Sons & Co Indian Brandee.

When I was small, my mum was on a coach trip and had a severe pain in her stomach. the dosage was one to two teaspoons, but Mum was in so much pain that she glugged down a large amount. Within 15 minutes the pain subsided and our house was never again without Indian Brandee.

Steph Rowe, Saltash, Cornwall.