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Evelyn Waugh

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Born: October 27 1903

Died: 0909 04 19661966

Evelyn Waugh's father Arthur was a noted editor and publisher. His only sibling Alec also became a writer of note. In fact, his book “The Loom of Youth” a novel about his old boarding school Sherborne caused Evelyn to be expelled from there and placed at Lancing College. He said of his time there, “…the whole of English education when I was brought up was to produce prose writers; it was all we were taught, really.” He went on to Hertford College, Oxford, where he read History. When asked if he took up any sports there he quipped, “I drank for Hertford.”

In 1924 Waugh left Oxford without taking his degree. After inglorious stints as a school teacher , an apprentice cabinet maker and journalist, he wrote and had published his first novel, “Decline and Fall” in 1928.

In 1928 he married Evelyn Gardiner. She proved unfaithful, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1930. Waugh would derive parts of “A Handful of Dust” from this unhappy time. His second marriage to Audrey Herbert lasted the rest of his life and begat seven children. It was during this time that he converted to Catholicism.

During the thirties Waugh produced one gem after another. From this decade come: “Vile Bodies” , “Black Mischief” , the incomparable “A Handful of Dust” and “Scoop” . After the Second World War he published what is for many his masterpiece, “Brideshead Revisited,” in which his Catholicism took centre stage. “The Loved One” a scathing satire of the American death industry followed in 1947. After publishing his “Sword of Honour Trilogy” about his experiences in World War II - “Men at Arms” , “Officers and Gentlemen” , “Unconditional Surrender" - his career was seen to be on the wane. In fact, “Basil Seal Rides Again” - his last published novel - received little critical or commercial attention.

Evelyn Waugh, considered by many to be the greatest satirical novelist of his day, died on 10 April 1966 at the age of 62.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_W...

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Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh

Books from Evelyn Waugh

A Handful of Dust

Scoop

The Loved One

Decline and Fall

A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush

Black Mischief

Men at Arms

Brideshead Revisited

The Sword of Honour Trilogy

The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy

The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh

Vile Bodies

Unconditional Surrender: The Conclusion of Men at Arms and Officers and Gentlemen

The Loved One

The Loved One

A Little Learning

The Loved One

The Loved One

The Diaries Of Evelyn Waugh

Helena