Bear the name of Waugh with pride. It is not a satchel of rocks, or a blotchy birthmark, or a tuxedo with medals for you to swank about in. Do not let it browbeat you into thinking you have to become a writer, that it is your destiny or your duty to do so. It isn't. There is no point in writing unless you have something to say and are determined to say it well.
Beware of seriousness: it is a form of stupidity.
Fear boredom.
Never use the word ‘ersatz’.
To Auberon Augustus Ichabod Waugh Good luck. The road ahead is tough and tricky. ‘May every base be broad in honour’. What does that mean?
Your ever loving and devoted father, Alexander Waugh
To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affections of children; to earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give one's self; to leave the world a little bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden path or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exaltation; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived… that is to succeed.
Ralph Waldo Emerson – (I think)
Milverton, August 2004
Acknowledgements
I can think of millions of reasons why most of the people who helped me with this book might rather I had not written it. Thank you Mama, Sophie, Daisy and Nat. Thank you Selina Hastings for giving me your stupendous Evelyn Waugh Archive – what generosity. It will be well looked after. Thank you Peter Waugh for your constant flow of information, for permission to quote from Alec Waugh and for your support and encouragement during the whole period of writing it. Thank you Andrew and Veronica for the trusting loan of letters and photographs, to Septimus, James and Hatty for agreeing to impertinent probings about your childhoods and to Aunt Teresa and the Evelyn Waugh Estate for permission to quote from Grandpapa's writings and for the loan of many of his unpublished letters. Thank you also to my father's cousins Robin Grant and Polly Mellotte; to his aunt Bridget and to his nanny, Vera Grother. Thank you Alan Bell for your colossal donations to my Wavian archive and to Vidia and Nadira Naipaul for getting the whole project off the ground in the first place.
Thank you to all those who put themselves out to clarify facts, lend me papers, grant me permissions, find me books or to help me in any other way along my path. Thank you especially: Gillon Aitken, Mark Amory, Robert Murray Davis, Richard Dorment, Tim Heald, Richard Ingrams, Charles and Mary Keen, Candida Lycett Green (for permission to quote John Betjeman), Thomas Meagher and Saen Noel (from the Alec Waugh Collection in the Special Collections at Boston University), Cristina Odone and Richard Oram (from the Evelyn Waugh Collection at the University of Austen, Texas), Michelle Paul (at the British Library), Dr Huw Ridgeway (Sherborne School), Jo Roberts-Miller (at Headline), Douglas Russell, Jennifer Scalt (Univeristy of Toronto Library) and John Howard Wilson. What a lot of kind people – thank you all.
Permissions:
Arthur Waugh books, letters, diaries quoted by permission of Teresa Waugh of the Arthur Waugh Estate; Alec Waugh books, letters, poems, diaries quoted by permission of Peter Waugh from the Alec Waugh Estate; Evelyn Waugh books, letters, poems, diaries quoted by permission of Teresa D'Arms from the Evelyn Waugh Estate; and Auberon Waugh books, letters, diaries quoted by permission of Teresa Waugh of the Auberon Waugh Estate.
All photographs are from private collections except:
Insert A:
Page 2 – Dr Alexander Waugh (Boston University)
Page 3 – K and Arthur Waugh (Boston University)
Page 7 – Evelyn and Arthur Waugh (By permission of The British Library)
Insert B:
Page 4 – Auberon Waugh (Jane Bown), Evelyn and Septimus Waugh (Hulton Archive) Page 6 – Auberon Waugh at Combe Florey (Daily Mail) Page 7 – Alexander Waugh (Camera Press), Bron and Alexander Waugh (Michael Ward, Sunday Times)
Bibliography
The lists contain only those published items quoted from or referred to in the text
ARTHUR WAUGH
Fiction and poetry:
Gordon in Africa [Newdigate Prize Poem] (1888) Legends of the Wheel: Poems (1898)
Galaxy: A Table-Book of Prose Reflections for Every Day of the Year, chosen and arranged by Elizabeth Myers (1944)
Non-fiction and autobiography:
Schoolroom and Home Theatricals (1890)
Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Study of his Life and Work (1892)
Robert Browning: A Biography (1900)
Reticence in Literature: And Other Papers (1915)
Tradition and Change: Studies in Contemporary Literature (1919)
A Hundred Years in Publishing: Being the Story of Chapman and Hall Ltd (1930)
One Man's Road: Being a Picture of Life in a Passing Generation (1931)
ALEC WAUGH
Fiction and poetry: The Loom of Youth (1917) Resentment: Poems (1918) Pleasure (1921) The Lonely Unicorn (1922) Kept (1925)
Three Score and Ten (1929) So Lovers Dream (1931) Thirteen Such Years (1932) The Balliols (1934) Island in the Sun (1956) Fuel for the Flame (1960) A Spy in the Family (1970) The Fatal Gift (1973)
Non-fiction and autobiography:
The Prisoners of Mainz (1919)
Public School Life: Boys, Parents, Masters (1922)
Myself When Young: Confessions (1923)
On Doing What One Likes: Essays (1926)
The Coloured Countries (1930)
His Second War (1944)
These Would I Choose: A Personal Anthology (1948)
The Early Years of Alec Waugh (1962) [autobiography 1898–1930]
My Brother Evelyn and Other Profiles (1967)
A Year to Remember: A Reminiscence of 1931 (1975) [autobiography]
The Best Wine Last (1978) [autobiography 1932–1969]
EVELYN WAUGH
Fiction and poetry:
Published in Evelyn Waugh Apprentice (ed Robert Murray Davis) (1985):
The World to Come - A Poem
Fragment of a Novel
Conversion - A School Play
The Balance (1926)
Edward of Unique Achievement
The Tutor's Tale (1927)
Too Much Tolerance (1933) Decline and Fall (1928) Vile Bodies (1930)
The Man Who Liked Dickens – Short Story (1933) A Handful of Dust (1934)
Mr. Loveday's Little Outing and Other Sad Stories (1936) Work Suspended (1942) Put Out More Flags (1942) Brideshead Revisited (1945)
The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold - A Conversation Piece (1957) Unconditional Surrender (1961) Basil Seal Rides Again (1963) Sword of Honour (1966) [a single volume recession of Men at Arms, Officers
and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender)
Non-fiction and autobiography:
P.R.B: An Essay on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1926)
Rossetti (1928)
Labels (1930)
Remote People (1931)
Edmund Campion (1935)
Ronald Knox (1958)
A Tourist in Africa (1960)
A Little Learning (1964) [autobiography, part I]
A Little Hope (unpublished) [autobiography draft for part II]
AUBERON WAUGH
Fiction and poetry: The Foxglove Saga (1960) Path of Dalliance (1963) Who Are The Violets Now? (1965)
Non-fiction and autobiography:
Country Topics (1974) [collected essays from the Evening Standard] Four Crowded Years (1976) [diaries]
In the Lion's Den (1978) [collected essays from the New Statesman] A Turbulent Decade (1985) [diaries]
Another Voice (1986) [collected essays from the Spectator] Waugh on Wine (1986) Will This Do? (1991) [autobiography]
Way of the World (3 vols: 1994, 1997, 2001) [collected pieces from Daily Telegraph]
DIARIES AND LETTERS
Arthur Waugh's diaries (1930–1943) are held in the Special Collections Archive at th
e Mugar Memorial Library in Boston. Some of K's diaries are there also while others remain in a private collection. Evelyn Waugh's diaries are in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Centre, University of Texas at Austin. An edited edition (The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh, ed. Michael Davie) was published in 1976. Dudley Carew's diaries are also in Texas. References to Auberon Waugh's diaries relate to those he published in Private Eye between 1970 and 1986.
Many of the letters quoted in this book were hitherto unpublished and in private hands. The most significant sources of published letters are:
The Letters of Evelyn Waugh, ed. Mark Amory (1980) The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh, ed. Charlotte Mosley (1996) The Letters of Ann Fleming, ed. Mark Amory (1985)
Mr Wu & Mrs Stitch: The Letters of Evelyn Waugh and Diana Cooper, ed. Artemis Cooper (1991)
The most significant letter collections from public libraries are as follows:
Alec Waugh Collection in Boston holds a large archive of Alec's incoming correspondence including many letters to him from K and Arthur and some from him to his parents, as well as Alec's notes on his father, his letters to Hugh Mackintosh and most of the manuscripts to his books.
Harry Ransom Research Center in Austin, Texas, holds everything that was in the library at Combe Florey in 1968 and more, including Dudley Carew's letters, letters from Evelyn to Alec and from Evelyn to his sister-in-law Joan. Arthur's letters to Kenneth McMaster are also in Texas.
The British Library holds 4000 letters of Evelyn Waugh's incoming correspondence, including most of the letters from his father, mother, wife and children.
Sherborne School Archive holds the manuscript of The Loom of Youth as well as the collected correspondence concerning it, including letters from Arthur to Alec (1917) and other material relating to Alec.
OTHER BOOKS CONSULTED
Ackerley, J.R. My Father and Mysef (1968)
Acton, Harold Memoires of an Aesthete (1948)
Blayac, Alain (ed.) Evelyn Waugh: New Directions (1992)
Bradbury, Malcolm Evelyn Waugh (1964)
Butler, Samuel Father and Son [in Butleriana] (1932)
Carew, Dudley A Fragment of a Friendship: A Memory of Evelyn Waugh (1974)
Carpenter, Humphrey The Brideshead Generation: Evelyn Waugh and his
Friends (1990) Davis, Robert Murray (and others) A Bibliography of Evelyn Waugh (1986);
Evelyn Waugh and the Forms of his Time (1989); Evelyn Waugh, Writer
(1981)
Donaldson, Frances Evelyn Waugh: Portrait of a Country Neighbour (1967)
Doyle, Paul A Waugh Companion (1988)
Gill, Brendan ‘Alec Waugh’ in A New York Life of Friends and Others (1990)
Gosse, Edmund Father and Son (1907)
Gourlay, A.B. A History of Sherborne School (1971)
Green, G.G (ed.) The Sherborne School Register 1890-1965 5th edition
(1965) Greenidge, Terence Evelyn Waugh in Letters (1994) Hare, Steve (ed.) Father and Son (1999) Hastings, Selina Evelyn Waugh, a biography (1994) Hollis, Christopher Evelyn Waugh (1954); Oxford in the Twenties: Recollections
of Five Friends (1976) Howell, C. Midsomer Norton and Radstock (1988)
Laqueur, Thomas W. Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation (2003) Lewis, Wyndham The Doom of Youth (1932) Littlewood, Ian The Writings of Evelyn Waugh (1983) Lodge, David Evelyn Waugh (1971)
Mackenzie, Ian Forgotten Places [with introduction by Arthur Waugh] (1919) McCartney, George Evelyn Waugh and the Modernist Tradition (1987) McDonnell, Jacqueline Evelyn Waugh (1988); Waugh on Women (1986) Myers, William Evelyn Waugh and the Problem of Evil (1991) O'Keeffe, Paul Some Sort of Genius: a Life of Wyndham Lewis (2000) Page, Norman An Evelyn Waugh Chronology (1997) Patey, Douglas Lane The Life of Evelyn Waugh (1998) Powell, Anthony To Keep the Ball Rolling (1976–1982) [memoirs in 4 vols] Powis, Littleton (ed.) The Letters of Elizabeth Myers (1951) Pryce-Jones, David (ed.) Evelyn Waugh and his World (1973) Rolo, Charles (ed.) The World of Evelyn Waugh (1958) Stannard, Martin Evelyn Waugh: The Critical Heritage (1984); Evelyn
Waugh: The Early Years 1903-1939 (1987); Evelyn Waugh: The Later Years
1939–1966 (1992) Stopp, Frederick Evelyn Waugh: Portrait of an Artist (1958) Sykes, Christopher Evelyn Waugh, a biography (1974) Thomsen, Moritz My Two Wars (1996)
Trelawny-Ross, A.H. Their Prime of Life: A Public School Study (1956) Watkins, Alan Brief Lives (1982) Wilson, John Howard EvelynWaugh, a Literary Biography, 1903-1924 (1996);
Evelyn Waugh, a Literary Biography, 1924-1966 (2001) Wykes, David Evelyn Waugh: A Literary Life (1999)
ESSAYS AND ARTICLES
Relating to the theme of this book:
Cockburn, Claud Evelyn Waugh's Lost Rabbit, Atlantic, Dec. 1973
Driberg, Tom The Evelyn Waugh I Knew, The Observer, May 20, 1973
Heald, Tim The Revolutionary Waughs, Old Shirburnian Society Annual Record (2002)
Hinchcliffe, Peter Fathers and Children in the Novels of Evelyn Waugh, University of Toronto Quarterly 35. No 3 (1966)
Waugh, Alec A Letter to A Father, Sunday Times, Oct. 26 1924; Memories, The Atlantic, Apr. 1974
Waugh, Alexander Penguin and the Wales, Penguin Collectors’ Society (1999); My Father the Anarchist, Daily Telegraph, Nov. 10, 2001
Waugh, Arthur Sherborne School, Country Life, Jun. 17, 1916
Waugh, Auberon And Father Came Too [Interview with Stephanie Nettell], Books and Bookmen, Jan. 1964; Death in the Family, Spectator, May 6, 1966; My Father's Diaries, New Statesman, Apr. 13, 1973; Waugh's World, New York Times Magazine, Oct. 7, 1973; Entries and Exits [Review of Evelyn Waugh's Diaries], Spectator, Sept. 4, 1976; Father and Son, Books and Bookmen, Oct. 1973; Stillingfleet's Revenge [review of Evelyn Waugh by Sykes], Books and Bookmen, Oct. 1975; My Uncle Alec, Spectator, Sept. 12, 1981; Laura Waugh 1916–1973, Antigonish Review, 54 (1984); A Little More Whitewash [review of Stannard's Evelyn Waugh, vol 1], Literary Review, Dec. 1986
Waugh, Evelyn The Youngest Generation, Lancing College Magazine, Dec. 1921; Myself When Young [review of Alec's book], Cherwell, Nov. 10, 1923; What I Think of My Elders, Daily Herald, May 19, 1930; Alec Waugh, Bookman, Jun. 1930; General Conversation: Myself…, Nash's Pall Mall Magazine, Mar. 1937; My Father, Sunday Telegraph, Dec. 2, 1962
Wheatcroft, Geoffrey Bron and his “Affec. Papa,” Atlantic Monthly, May 2001
Alexander Waugh is the grandson of Evelyn Waugh and the son of columnist Auberon Waugh and novelist Theresa Waugh. He has been the opera critic at the Mail on Sunday and the Evening Standard and has written several books, including Time (1999), God (2002), and The Rise and Fall of the House of Wittgenstein (2008). He lives in Somerset, England, with his wife, two daughters, and one son, Bron.
Dr Alexander Waugh, the ‘Great and Good’ founder of the English Waughs, remonstrating with a ‘perverse pupil’ in a picture that once hung in Evelyn's bedroom at Underhill.
Dr Alexander Waugh, the ‘Brute,’ after a good day's shooting, c. 1890.
Arthur with his toy shotgun, 1871.
The family on the steps at Midsomer Norton, 1879. Back row: Mrs. Waugh holding Elsie, Arthur in straw boater. Front row: Connie looking wistful, the Brute with his favourite child, Trissie, on his knee and Alick, far right.
Arthur's sketch of his father salmon fishing, c. 1880.
Together on stage: Arthur as Benjamin Goldfinch and the Brute as Uncle Gregory in an amateur production of .
Courting days: Arthur and K about to set off for an exciting day on their bicycles, c. 1892.
Arthur clasps baby Alec in his arms at a friend's house, Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, 1898.
Arthur teaches Alec to walk on Bournemouth beach in the summer of 1899. In the background, Marquis cools his paws.
Evelyn on the steps of 11 Hillfield Road, the house where he was born, with his nanny, Lucy Hodges.
K, Arthur, Evelyn and Alec on holiday at Midsomer Norton, 1904.
Arthur, Alec and K relax in the garden of their newly buil
t Hampstead home, Underhill, 1909.
School prefect— ‘son of my soul’. Alec at Sherborne, 1914.
Arthur with cricket bat aged six, 1872.
Alec with cricket bat aged six, 1904.
The Annual Paters’ Match at Fernden embarrassingly described in . Alec bowls a ‘sturdy Major’; Arthur holds his bat at the bowler's end.
The Chapman and Hall staff cricket team. Captain, Arthur Waugh, sits in the front row with Alec scowling between his legs.
Arthur, outside the Aeolian Hall, London, congratulates Evelyn on winning the Hawthornden Prize for his biography of Edmund Campion, 24 June 1936.
Happy times: Arthur and Alec at a cricket match in Corsham, 1939.
Piers Court, Stinchcombe, at the time Evelyn and Laura bought it in 1937.
Edrington, Joan's house near Silchester set in eighteen acres of garden, which made Alec feel inadequate.
Evelyn at the time of his first marriage in 1929.
Barbara Jacobs: the snapshot that Alec took with him to the trenches.
Alec the young officer, at the time he wrote , 1917.
Joan with Alec at the start of their marriage, he in his golfing kit.
Alec with Andrew and Veronica moments after the Prime Minister's declaration of war in September 1939.
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