Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (/ˈɑrθər ˈiːvlɪn ˈsɪndʒən wɔː/; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966), known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; and also was a prolific journalist and reviewer. His best-known works include the early satires Decline and Fall (1928) and A Handful of Dust (1934), the novel Brideshead Revisited (1945), and the Second World War trilogy Sword of Honour (1952–61). As a writer, Evelyn Waugh is recognised as one of the great prose stylists of the English language in the 20th century.The son of a publisher, Waugh was educated at Lancing College and then at Hertford College, Oxford, and briefly worked as a schoolmaster before becoming a full-time writer. As a young man, he acquired many fashionable and aristocratic friends, and developed a taste for country house society that never left him. In the 1930s, he travelled extensively, often as a special newspaper correspondent; thus was he reporting from Abyssinia at the time of the 1935 Italian invasion. He served in the British armed forces throughout the Second World War (1939–45), first in the Royal Marines and then in the Royal Horse Guards. He was a perceptive writer who used the experiences, and the wide range of people he encountered, in his works of fiction, generally to humorous effect; Waugh's detachment was such that he fictionalised his own mental breakdown, occurred in the early 1950s.After the failure of his first marriage, Waugh converted to Roman Catholicism in 1930. His traditionalist stance led him to strongly oppose all attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church; the changes by the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) greatly disturbed his sensibilities, especially the introduction of the vernacular Mass. That blow to his religious traditionalism, his dislike for the welfare-state culture of the post–War world, and the decline of his health, darkened his final years; nonetheless, he continued to write. To the public, Waugh displayed a mask of indifference, but he was capable of great kindness to those he considered his friends. After his death in 1966, Evelyn Waugh acquired a following of new readers, because of their exposure to the film and television versions of his works, such as the television serial Brideshead Revisited (1981).
Harriet Mary Waugh, Michael Septimus Waugh, Maria Teresa Waugh, James Waugh, Margaret Evelyn Waugh, Mary Waugh, Four daughters ; three sons
Star Sign
Scorpio
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Quote
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To be oversensitive to clichés is like being oversensitive to table manners.
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I regard writing not as investigation of character but as an exercise in the use of language.
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An artist must be a reactionary. He has to stand out against the tenor of the age and not go flopping along.
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You have no idea how much nastier I would be if I was not a Catholic. Without supernatural aid I would hardly be a human being.
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We cherish our friends not for their ability to amuse us, but for ours to amuse them.
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We can trace almost all the disasters of English history to the influence of Wales.
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Fact
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Satirical British novelist, a convert to Roman Catholicism. He also wrote travel books and biographies. Waugh was an alcoholic and a depressive. His "The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold" (1957) was a revelation about his unhappiness, while "The Loved One" was a satire on the American undertaker's industry. He is best remembered for "Brideshead Revisited" (1945).
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Author of Brideshead Revisited.
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Based his character, Rex Mottram, on Brendan Bracken.
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Father of Maria Teresa (b. 1938), Auberon Waugh (1939-2001), Mary (1940-1940), Margaret Evelyn (1942-1986), Harriet Mary (b. 1944), James (b. 1946) and Michael Septimus (b. 1950).
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Son of Arthur Waugh.
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Grandfather of 10.
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He allegedly declined the C.B.E. (Commander of the order of the British Empire) in 1959.
$1.6 Million
