In 1926 Acton acted as a "special constable" during the general strike, apolitical as he was, and took his degree. In October he took an apartment in Paris, at 29 Quai de Bourbon, and had his portrait painted by Pavel Tchelitcheff. Moving between Paris and London in the next few years, Acton sought to find his voice as a writer. In 1927 he began work on a novel, and a third book of poems, "Five Saints and an Appendix", came out early the following year. This was followed by a prose fable, "Cornelian", in March. In July Acton acted as Best Man at the wedding of Evelyn Waugh to the Honourable Evelyn Gardner. Waugh's "Decline and Fall" bore a dedication to Acton 'in Homage and Affection', but when Acton's own novel – disastrously entitled "Humdrum" – appeared in October 1928, it was slated in comparison with "Decline and Fall" by critics such as Cyril Connolly.