Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh was born to wealthy parents in 1903 in London. Waugh’s family moved to the nearby countryside in 1907, and Waugh enjoyed his childhood in this idyllic setting. Waugh was a clever and inventive child, writing short stories and plays from a young age. He received a scholarship to attend Oxford University but studied little during his time there. Instead, he gained a notorious reputation for his drinking and his sardonic, unconventional approach to politics and culture. During this period, he had several homosexual relationships. Waugh did not complete his degree at Oxford, and instead enrolled in art school, which he also did not complete. His first book, based on the life of the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, was published in 1927. Shortly after this, his comedic satire, Decline and Fall, also went into print. At the end of this year, Waugh married Evelyn Gardner, but the couple separated two years later. Waugh began to gain a reputation as a writer and worked for several well-known magazines and newspapers. He became a war correspondent, covering events in Africa and South America and travelling extensively during this period. In 1930, Waugh converted to Catholicism and married Laura Herbert. The couple had seven children. Waugh served in World War II but was undisciplined and unsuited to military life. He injured himself in a parachuting accident in 1944 and, during his recovery period, wrote Brideshead Revisited. This novel was extremely successful and made Waugh famous. After Brideshead, Waugh wrote a series of novels about Catholicism, but they did not receive the same degree of success. Waugh suffered a nervous breakdown in 1953 and, although he recovered, his health was poor after this. He died of heart failure in 1966.