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In a Preface to the 1962 edition of Black Mischief  (first published 1932) author Evelyn Waugh puts his satire into historical context: "Black Mischief was written after a winter spent in East and Central Africa...Thirty years ago it seemed an anachronism that any part of Africa should be independent of European administration. History has not followed what then seemed its natural course."  The imagined island of Sakuyu, renamed the Empire of Azania by his His Imperial Majesty Seth, is situated off the eastern coast of Africa. Its native regime is incompetent, corrupt, with delusions of grandeur. Latching on to this 'failed state' are a number of non-Africans singularly ill-equipped to hold responsible positions in any government worth the name. Of the main expatriate character, Englishman Basil Seal, it was said by his mother Lady Celia, "it isn't even as though he was the kind of man who would do in Kenya". The official representative, "His Britan

F rancis Scott  Key Fitzgerald  is most well known for his third novel The Great Gatsby  published in 1925. This book has been described as a "pitch-perfect portrayal of the Jazz Age" and "the definitive portrait of the Roaring Twenties". With such high praise it is important that readers understand the limits of the author's gaze. If The Great Gatsby  is definitive of anything, it is not the experience of the vast majority of Americans during this period. Fitzgerald is concerned only with a privileged minority. His first and second novels are clear examples of this bias. This Side of Paradise (1920) and The Beautiful and Damned  (1922) are all about the gilded offspring of the very rich. This Side of Paradise  begins with a breath-taking display of arrogance, the sort that  eye-wateringly large amounts of money can bring. As a boy, Amory Blaine is to be taken on his first Grand Tour of Europe by his mother.       "However, four hours out from land, Italy b