A Bad Show, What!

When Nevil Rigden, the extraordinarily inept protagonist of Storm Jamieson’s latest novel A Cup of Tea for Mr. Thorgill (Harper, $3.50) breaks away from the Communist Party, the reaction among his colleagues at Oxford is: a damned bad show. They are disturbed not by the fact that Rigden had operated in their midst for ten years as an underground agent; not that he was a self- professed traitor; but that the fellow made such a thing over his change of heart. A chap who washes his dirty linen in public must be a bounder, what!

The Master, whose protégé Rigden had been despite, or perhaps because of, his working-class origin, realizes that blood will out. (“What you happen to believe, as you call it, at the moment, isn’t the point [i.e., are you for or against Communism]. The point is that you’ve been behaving in a way many people do behave—dishonestly and quite irresponsibly. I made the mistake in supposing you were less— what shall I say? less ill bred.”) To Pebworth, the doddering liberal who respects a “dedicated Communist,” it’s a great pity. (“You should have held your tongue, my boy. Much the most decent thing to do.”) To Craddock, the fellow traveler more Communist than the Communists, except when it came to signing up for Spain, Rigden has taken the “thirty pieces of silver” and must be destroyed. To Nevil’s wife Evelyn, he has gone over to the enemy. (“How d’you think I can bear to live with a dull beast of a Tory?”)

PL

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Priscilla L. Buckley

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When Nevil Rigden, the extraordinarily inept protagonist of Storm Jamieson’s latest novel A Cup of Tea for Mr. Thorgill (Harper, $3.50) breaks away from the Communist Party, the reaction among his colleagues at Oxford is: a damned bad show. They are disturbed not by the fact that Rigden had operated in their midst for ten years as an underground agent; not that he was a self- professed traitor; but that the fellow made such a thing over his change of heart. A chap who washes his dirty linen in public must be a bounder, what!

The Master, whose protégé Rigden had been despite, or perhaps because of, his working-class origin, realizes that blood will out. (“What you happen to believe, as you call it, at the moment, isn’t the point [i.e., are you for or against Communism]. The point is that you’ve been behaving in a way many people do behave—dishonestly and quite irresponsibly. I made the mistake in supposing you were less— what shall I say? less ill bred.”) To Pebworth, the doddering liberal who respects a “dedicated Communist,” it’s a great pity. (“You should have held your tongue, my boy. Much the most decent thing to do.”) To Craddock, the fellow traveler more Communist than the Communists, except when it came to signing up for Spain, Rigden has taken the “thirty pieces of silver” and must be destroyed. To Nevil’s wife Evelyn, he has gone over to the enemy. (“How d’you think I can bear to live with a dull beast of a Tory?”)