A Handful of Dust – Evelyn Waugh

A Handful of Dust is an interesting, funny and ultimately rather moving experiment. It starts in familiar Waugh territory, satirising the party set of the ‘thirties, but the mood shifts with a tragic event and the closing passages, set in Dutch Guyana, are very bleak. The control of tone throughout is hugely impressive, and the characters are all believable in their self-serving delusion.