1. A few thoughts on English novelists who refused to to share fruit with children during World War II rationing & subsequently.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
2. Evelyn Waugh story is well known but bears revisiting. During WWII and after, food strictly rationed in Britain. Fruit a cherished rarity
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Replying to @HeerJeet
3. June, 1946. A shipment of bananas arrives. Government makes it priority to give bananas to children, many of whom have never eaten one
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Replying to @HeerJeet
4. Laura Waugh secures three bananas for her oldest children, Theresa, Auberon and Margaret. They sit at table, ogling the fruit.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
5. Enters the paterfamilias, Evelyn Waugh, author of Brideshead Revisited. He demands all the bananas be put on his plate.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
6. Auberon Waugh's account: ."before the anguished eyes of his children, [Evelyn Waugh] poured on cream, which was almost unprocurable..."
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Replying to @HeerJeet
7. "...and sugar, which was heavily rationed, and ate all three [bananas]."
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Replying to @HeerJeet
8. The great banana heist was a shattering event for Auberon. After that, he could never take his father's views on morality seriously.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
9. Surprisingly or perhaps not surprisingly, Evelyn Waugh wasn't the only English writer who enjoyed hoarding fruit from malnourished kids.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
10. During WWII, novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett buckled against common habits other adults had of giving rationed oranges to neighborhood kids
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11. Ivy Compton-Burnett on why she didn't share: "My need is greater than theirs. They have that nasty yellow bottled stuff at school."
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Replying to @HeerJeet
12. The way to understand Waugh & Compston-Burnett is they acted out of aristocratic resentment for wartime restrictions & leveling.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
13. Unexpectedly, wartime rationing actually improved diet of working class: giving them access to fruit that wasn't part of diet before
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