by Philip Eade
Many sought comfort from the timing of his death and from the fact that, as Daphne Acton wrote, he ‘didn’t like the way things were going, so he will be happy seeing them from another angle’.9 Dorothy Lygon remembered Evelyn as ‘so much part of our youth & was a focusing point of endless fun & happiness [but] it does seem to have been the sort of end one would wish for oneself & perhaps what he would have chosen too’.10 Diana Cooper suggested to Laura that Evelyn had died ‘too young for you but perhaps right for him who never was closely held by the world & its illusions’. He would mind leaving ‘You above all things,’ she added, ‘for you have loved & served & arranged for him & lived for him as no other woman could have done.’11
For John Betjeman, too, it was at least ‘a joy to think of how perfectly you [Laura] and he were suited to each other, and that Bron has inherited the family genius’.12 Penelope said ‘what a marvellous wife you have been to him’,13 as did Daphne Acton, who ventured that Evelyn ‘must have been a whole-time job for you, which you carried out with all heart’.14
With the main focus gone from her life, Laura took increasingly to the sherry and passed the time with crosswords and her cows. Barely three months after Evelyn’s death, she put Combe Florey up for sale but later changed her mind and continued to live there until Bron and his family took the house over in 1971, whereupon she moved into a wing at the back. Some years before his death, Evelyn had discussed selling his papers to the University of Texas to help fund his retirement. Laura was wrongly advised that she had been left short of money and agreed to the sale of his entire library, bookshelves and all. Some years later she sold the rights to his diaries to The Observer without her or any member of the family having read them. When they were published, first in 1973 as extracts in the newspaper and three years later as a book, the countless disobliging references caused a furore and were widely seen as providing corroboration for those who had come to regard Evelyn as an ogre. Laura was at least spared much of the outcry, having died suddenly from pneumonia shortly after the first extracts appeared. She was buried on her fifty-seventh birthday: ‘more deeply mourned,’ Bron later wrote, ‘than her modest nature would ever have understood.’
* Responding to the obituaries in an article in The Spectator that May, Bron wrote: ‘The main point about my father, which might be of interest … is not that he was interested in pedigree – it was the tiniest part of his interests. It is not that he was a conservative – politics bored him … it is simply that he was the funniest man of his generation.’
† A few days later in The Times, Greene described Evelyn as ‘the greatest novelist of my generation’ and wrote: ‘We were deeply divided politically, we were divided even in our conception of the same church, and there were times when certain popular journalists tried to push us into what Indonesians would call a confrontation, but Evelyn had an unshakable loyalty to his friends, even if he may have detested their opinions and sometimes their actions. One could never rely on him for an easy approval or a warm weak complaisance, but when one felt the need of him he was always there.’ The Times, 15 April 1966.
Notes
Page references to works cited are to the editions listed in the Bibliography unless otherwise stated.
AWA Alexander Waugh Archive
BL British Library
BU Boston University Library
CU Columbia University
EAR The Essays, Articles and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh, edited by Donat Gallagher
EWCH Evelyn Waugh: The Critical Heritage, edited by Martin Stannard
EWD The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh, edited by Michael Davie
EWL The Letters of Evelyn Waugh, edited by Mark Amory
GU Georgetown Univerity
HRC The Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin
IWM Imperial War Museum
LHC Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College, London
LNMEW Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh, edited by Charlotte Mosley
MWMS Mr Wu & Mrs Stitch: the Letters of Evelyn Waugh and Diana Cooper, edited by Artemis Cooper
1 Second Son
1. A Little Learning, p. 28.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid., p.63.
4. See John Howard Wilson, Evelyn Waugh: A Literary Biography 1903–1924, pp. 18 and 180; quoted in Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons, p. 77.
5. Ibid., p. 77; Alec Waugh, My Brother Evelyn, p. 164.
6. Christopher Sykes, Evelyn Waugh, p. 7.
7. Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons, p. 79; Alec Waugh, My Brother Evelyn, p. 164.
8. It is not recorded who came up with the nickname. Alexander Waugh suspects it was either Evelyn or his mother.
9. A Little Learning, p. 22; Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons, p. 25.
10. Alec Waugh, The Early Years of Alec Waugh, pp. 7–8; Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons, pp. 24–8; A Little Learning, pp. 20–23.
11. A Little Learning, p. 22.
12. Arthur Waugh, One Man’s Road, p. 34.
13. Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons, p. 24.
14. Alec Waugh, Early Years, p. 7.
15. A Little Learning, p. 22.
16. Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons, p. 24.
17. Arthur Waugh, One Man’s Road, p. 61.
18. Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons, pp. 90–91; Arthur Waugh, One Man’s Road, p. 63.
19. Sykes, Evelyn Waugh, p. 4.
20. As an example, Evelyn records his ‘signally humourless’ intended wording (never used) for his planned memorial in the church. See A Little Learning, pp. 18 and 20.
21. Auberon Waugh, Will This Do?, p. 19.
22. A Little Learning, p. 21.
23. Ibid., p. 9.
24. Arthur Waugh, One Man’s Road, pp. 12–13.
25. A Little Learning, p. 21.
26. Alec Waugh, Early Years, p. 7.
27. A Little Learning, p. 49.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid., p. 47.
30. Ibid., pp. 44–7.
31. Ibid., p. 48.
32. Arthur Waugh, One Man’s Road, p. 23.
33. Quoted in Alec Waugh, Early Years, p. 9.
34. Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons, p. 32.
35. A Little Learning, p. 69.
36. Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons, p. 41.
37. Quoted in ibid., p. 42.
38. Arthur Waugh, One Man’s Road, p. 159.
39. Nash’s Pall Mall Magazine, March 1937, p. 8.
40. Arthur Waugh, One Man’s Road, p. 208; The Times, 20 October 1892, p. 7: ‘Mr Waugh’s discriminating judgments have evidently cost time and thought, and proceed from a critical faculty of no mean order.’
41. Arthur Waugh, One Man’s Road, pp. 217–18.
42. A Little Learning, p. 4.
43. Sykes, Evelyn Waugh, p. 5.
44. A Little Learning, p. 31.
45. Arthur Waugh, One Man’s Road, p. 218.
46. Selina Hastings, Evelyn Waugh, pp. 6–7.
47. A Little Learning, p. 31.
48. Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons, p. 75.
49. Arthur Waugh, One Man’s Road, p. 218.
50. Arthur Waugh to Alec Waugh, 20 May 1914; BU.
51. Arthur Waugh to Catherine Waugh, 10 July 1993, AWA; quoted in Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons, p. 116.
52. Ibid., p. 116.
53. A Little Learning, p. 31.
54. Ibid., p. 32.
55. Arthur Waugh, One Man’s Road, pp. 257–9.
56. Alec Waugh, Early Years, p. 12.
57. Margot Strickland, Notes on Catherine Waugh’s Diary, p. 7; AWA
58. Alec Waugh The Early Years of Alec Waugh, pp. 13-14.
59. Michael Holroyd, Bernard Shaw, Vol. 1, p. 267.
60. Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons, pp. 50–51.
61. Alec Waugh, Early Years, pp. 14–15.
62. Arthur Waugh, One Man’s Road, p. 290.
63. Ibid., p. 321.
64. Alec Waugh, My Brother Ev
elyn, p. 163.
65. Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons, pp. 74–5.
66. A Little Learning, p. 27.
2 The Sadism of Youth
1. Hugh Petrie, Hendon and Golders Green Past (Historical Publications, 2005), p. 54.
2. A Little Learning, p. 34.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid., p. 42.
5. Ibid., p. 44.
6. Ibid., p. 78.
7. Ibid., p. 71.
8. Ibid., p. 72.
9. Alec Waugh interview with Michael Davie, December 1972, AWA.
10. A Little Learning, p. 43.
11. Ibid., p. 36.
12. Jean Fleming to Selina Hastings, interview transcript, p. 2, AWA.
13. A Little Learning, p. 44.
14. Ibid., pp. 47–8.
15. Stella Rhys to Christopher Sykes, 19 April 1974, copy in AWA.
16. A Little Learning, p. 41.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid., p. 30.
19. Stella Rhys to Christopher Sykes, 19 April 1974; Sykes Papers, GU.
20. Jean Fleming to Selina Hastings, 17 March 1991, AWA.
21. A Little Learning, p. 43.
22. Diary, Summer 1912; HRC.
23. A Little Learning, p. 59.
24. Alec Waugh, Early Years, pp. 20–22.
25. J. S. Granville Grenfell to Catherine Waugh, 31 October 1910, BL.
26. A Little Learning, p. 81.
27. Ibid.
28. Article entitled ‘My Father’, The Sunday Telegraph, 2 December 1962.
29. September 1911; EWD, p. 5.
30. A Little Learning, p. 63.
31. Mr Stebbing, Evelyn’s form master.
32. Diary, [September–October 1914]; HRC.
33. Mr Hynchcliffe, the Classics master.
34. A Little Learning, p. 84.
35. Cecil Beaton, The Wandering Years, p. 173.
36. Hugh Burnett (ed.), Face to Face, Jonathan Cape (1964), p. 38.
37. The Spectator, 21 July 1961.
38. Stella Rhys to Christopher Sykes, 19 April 1974; Sykes Papers, GU.
39. The Spectator, 21 July 1961.
40. Alec Waugh, My Brother Evelyn, p. 166.
41. Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons, p. 79.
42. Arthur Waugh to Andrew Waugh, 1933, quoted in Selina Hastings, Evelyn Waugh, p. 25.
43. ‘My Childhood’ by Alec Waugh copy in AWA.
44. Alec Waugh to Evelyn Waugh, 29 March 1908 and 21 March 1909; BL.
45. Alec Waugh, My Brother Evelyn, pp. 163–5.
46. Ibid., p. 168.
47. A Little Learning, p. 86.
48. Catherine Waugh Diary, 16 June 1912, 17 June 1912, 18 June 1912; BU.
49. A Little Learning, pp. 55–6; Catherine Waugh Diary, 7 July 1912; BU.
50. Catherine Waugh Diary, 11 July 1912 to 22 August 1912; BU.
51. A Little Learning, pp. 56–7.
52. Ibid., p. 58.
53. Ibid., p. 60.
54. Arthur Waugh, One Man’s Road, p. 333.
55. A Little Learning, p. 60.
56. Arthur Waugh, One Man’s Road, p. 334.
57. Ibid., p. 338.
58. A Little Learning, p. 60.
59. Ibid., pp. 60–61.
60. Ibid., p. 61.
61. 12–13 June 1912; EWD, p. 6.
62. A Little Learning, p. 91.
63. ‘Come Inside’ in John A. O’Brien (ed.), The Road to Damascus, 1949; EAR, pp. 366–8.
64. A Little Learning, p. 52.
65. Ibid., pp. 92–3.
66. Ibid., p. 93; EWD, p. 9.
67. Jane Ridley, The Architect and His Wife: A Life of Edwin Lutyens, pp. 175–6.
68. ‘Charles Ryder’s Schooldays’, in Work Suspended and Other Stories, p. 305.
69. Alec Waugh, Notes on Christopher Sykes’s Biography of Evelyn Waugh, HRC.
70. A Little Learning, p. 92.
71. Aubrey Ensor, notes on proof copy of A Little Learning, p. 92, in author’s possession.
72. A Little Learning, p. 92.
73. Email from Father Alan Walker, Vicar of St Jude’s, 16 January 2013. In 1914 Bourchier had gone out to Belgium as a chaplain to the Red Cross, until he was captured by Germans and sentenced to be shot at dawn as a suspected spy, ‘the greatest thrill of my life,’ he recalled. He was reprieved, though, and instead held prisoner until he returned to the suburb and to St Jude’s in March 1916, shortly before Evelyn’s confirmation.
74. Alec Waugh, Early Years, pp. 43–4.
75. A Little Learning, p. 68; Alec Waugh’s notes on Christopher Sykes’s biography of Evelyn Waugh, attached to Alec’s letter to Auberon Waugh, 6 March 1976; AWA. In Charles Ryder’s Schooldays, Charles’s was ‘not a God-fearing home’ but his father nevertheless ‘read family prayers every morning; on the outbreak of war he abruptly stopped the practice, explaining, when asked, that there was now nothing left to pray for’.
76. Arthur Waugh to Kenneth McMaster, 24 August 1916, HRC, quoted Hastings, p.40.
77. Alec Waugh, My Brother Evelyn, p. 168.
78. A Little Learning, p. 94.
3 Serving Lord Kitchener
1. Arthur Waugh to Kenneth McMaster, 25 August 1914, HRC.
2. A Little Learning, p. 87; Aubrey Ensor notes on proof copy of A Little Learning, in author’s possession.
3. A Little Learning, p. 87.
4. Ibid., pp. 87–8.
5. Arthur Waugh to Kenneth McMaster, New Year’s Day 1915, HRC.
6. A Little Learning, p. 89.
7. Ibid., pp. 94–5.
8. Diary, [c. 8–18 October 1914], HRC.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid., [c.12 September–1 October 1914], HRC.
11. A Little Learning, p. 88.
12. Diary, [mid-June 1915], HRC.
13. Ibid., [early November 1914]; EWD, p. 8.
14. Alec Waugh, My Brother Evelyn, p. 168.
15. The Times, 26 January 1926.
16. Hugo Vickers, Cecil Beaton, p. 15.
17. Aubrey Ensor notes on proof copy of A Little Learning, in author’s possession.
18. Ibid.
19. Alec Waugh, My Brother Evelyn, p. 169.
20. Aubrey Ensor notes on proof copy of A Little Learning, in author’s possession.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. A Little Learning, p. 90; Diary, [November–December 1915], HRC.
24. A Little Learning, p. 90.
25. Vickers, Cecil Beaton, p. 15.
26. The Times, 20 July 1925, p. 11.
27. A Little Learning, p. 90.
28. Diary, c. 2 January 1916, HRC.
29. Ibid., late January 1916.
30. A Little Learning, p. 94.
31. Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons, p. 53.
32. Arthur Waugh to Kenneth McMaster, 13 December 1913, HRC.
33. A Little Learning, p. 95.
34. Arthur Waugh to Alec Waugh, 20 May 1914; BU.
35. Arthur Waugh, One Man’s Road, p. 332.
36. Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons, p. 76.
37. Catherine Waugh to Alec Waugh, 25 May 1915; BU.
38. Arthur Waugh to Alec Waugh, 19 October 1916; BU.
39. A Little Learning, p. 95.
40. Alec Waugh to Hugh Mackintosh, 25 February 1915; BU.
41. Alec Waugh to Hugh Mackintosh, 29 October 1915; BU.
42. Arthur Waugh to Alec Waugh, 5 June 1915, quoted in Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons, p.69; BU.
43. Catherine Waugh to Alec Waugh, 24 June 1915; BU.
44. Arthur Waugh to Alec Waugh, 21 January 1916; BU.
45. Arthur Waugh to Alec Waugh, 1 February 1917; BU.
46. A Little Learning, p. 141.
47. Arthur Waugh, One Man’s Road, p. 367.
4 A Lesser Place than Eton
1. A Little Learning, p. 163.
2. Ibid., pp. 99–100.
3. B. W. T. Handford Lancing 1848–1930, p. 247.
4. Dudley Carew, A Fragment of Friendsh
ip, p. 38.
5. A Little Learning, p. 99.
6. Undated note by Roger Fulford; AWA.
7. Handford, Lancing, p. 263.
8. A Little Learning, p. 99.
9. Transcript of Basil Handford interview with Selina Hastings; AWA.
10. Obituary in The Times, 9 February 1940.
11. A Little Learning, p. 99.
12. Daily Express, 20 March 1929.
13. Evelyn Waugh in Letters by Terence Greenidge, p. 24.
14. Arthur Waugh to Kenneth McMaster, 6 January 1927, HRC.
15. A Little Learning, p. 101.
16. Undated note by Roger Fulford in AWA.
17. David Pryce-Jones (ed.), Evelyn Waugh and His World, p. 17.
18. Alec Waugh to Hugh Mackintosh, 13 October 1917; BU, quoted in Hastings, p. 57.
19. Pryce-Jones, Evelyn Waugh and His World, p. 17.
20. A Little Learning, p. 107.
21. Catherine Waugh to Alec Waugh, 19 May 1918; BU, quoted in Hastings, p. 57.