The Berry Scene by Dornford Yates, 1947.

OK, I was wrong--this isn't the dregs either. (I still have As BBBerry and I Were Saying, which must have in condensed form the awfulness I thought was spread among these 3.) Of course there are the typical DY cliches, more pronounced with time; and as he aged, the ability of his characters to forsee WWI long before 1914 became more striking. He's the ultimate believer in national stereotypes, with French characters always confessing that the English are "the best in the world." Berry on the gathering clouds of the Great War: "[The Germans have] hated us for years, because they know that we are better than they." "They hate us because we are free," anyone? But there are some classic moments too, like the steam roundabout that plays "Daisy Bell" at top volume and speed, the American caricature Coker Falk, of Chunkit ("See here, Junior, when Coker Falk says 'Mine,' wise guys throw in their hands"), and some great courtroom scenes. Cousin Boris is a broader, less funny, and totally unsympathetic copy of Nancy Mitford's Cedric Hampton (Love in a Cold Climate)--interesting to me for that parallel alone.