As one reviewer wrote of this Whitbread book of the year, which breathed a rude new life into English regional fiction: "If you tot up the deaths and other tragedies in this feisty first novel, it seems almost rude to find it so amusing and delightful".
Not everyone finds it so amusing.
Even more importantly, why do we find it so amusing?
Those poor saps find it so amusing that I went to the theater and saw this film, instead of watching 60 Minutes and falling asleep on the couch, that they would actually sit down and watch me talk about it for 12 minutes.
"I find it so kind of amusing how polarizing it can be here [in the United States].
But if it were re-made with a middle-aged Indian hero, some in the audience here might not find it quite so amusing.
Or was it merely Philby's penchant for irony, his singing, along with Ol' Blue Eyes, "And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing"?
You've been there for us in your inimitable way since we were born and never asked for anything in return, I could go on, but I think Sinatra said it best, You loved, you laughed and cried, you had your fill, your share of losing and now, as tears subside you'd find it all so amusing to think you did all that and may I say, not in a shy way, oh, no, oh, no, not you, you did it your way.
Lady Montdore found it extremely amusing to repeat the words Nova Scotia, so I shall do so now.
I found it quite amusing.
