Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh (October 1903 – April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books. His most famous books include the satire Decline and Fall and the Second World War trilogy Sword of Honour.
We interviewed biographer Selina Hastings to find out more about Waugh and the Bright Young Things. “At Oxford, for the first time Waugh had the freedom to do what he wanted, and unfortunately a lot of what he wanted to do was drink.”
Evelyn Waugh’s novels are an absolute must-read for anyone eager to explore the intricacies of the human condition within the backdrop of an elegant yet tumultuous world.
Books by Evelyn Waugh
“My attitude to Waugh is complicated, in that I deplore the cynicism, but I revel in the anarchy — I love the capacity to say so beautifully not merely the unsayable but almost the unthinkable. Waugh is so good at this business of letting us imagine that life goes arse-over-tip and then seeing what happens.” Read more...
“The pleasure of reading his letters is to see somebody at work on constructing a personality, on constructing a self. Which isn’t necessarily his true self. Do we ever get to the true self in Waugh? I think we don’t. I don’t think he necessarily knew where it was himself. What you get instead is this apparently tweedy, peevish, reactionary figure – but underneath it amazingly perceptive and very funny.” Read more...
The best books on Great Letter Writers
Jonathan Keates, Biographer
“He really takes you there. This book brings that world to life in a wonderful way. He is very good on the eccentricity of it, and the madness of the war. There are so many things that we would take for granted that went out of the window in war time. It was…a world of survival. Guy is an everyman. He is just an ordinary good guy, a very sympathetic character, who finds himself in all sorts of terrible situations which are completely beyond his control…I also like the scope of the book, which takes you from Italy to England to West Africa to Crete.” Read more...
Novels and Memoirs of World War II
James Holland, Military Historians & Veteran
“I think it is the best description of a foreign correspondent’s career, and I doubt it will ever be bettered.” Read more...
Richard Beeston, Foreign Correspondent
“It explores pretty well the European reaction to Communism and Fascism in the 1930s. It’s one of his six comic novels and it’s Ethiopia. It is kind of a political version of Scoop. It’s about blacks who are in fact red, as in Communist, and then there are the blacks who are black and there is an explanation of the political situation in this imaginary African country that is every bit as good as Mr Salter and Lord Copper at The Daily Beast.” Read more...
The Best Political Satire Books
P. J. O’Rourke, Political Commentator
“It is little known and should be more widely read. It may be little known because of its awful title. The book has an odd genesis – it was a commission from the Pearson family who had oil holdings in Mexico that had been expropriated by the revolutionary government. They were so outraged that they paid Waugh to write a book about how arbitrary and unjust this was.” Read more...
Hugh Thomson, Travel Writer
Interviews where books by Evelyn Waugh were recommended
The best books on Mexico, recommended by Hugh Thomson
Explorer, film-maker and writer, Hugh Thomson, picks the best books on Mexico, from the revolution in 1910, to the conquistadors, to gold mines, to the fatalism of Mexico and more.
The Best Political Satire Books, recommended by P. J. O’Rourke
Satire is humour used for a moral purpose, explains American political satirist P.J. O’Rourke—though it doesn’t have to be particularly funny and can be quite dark. Here, he chooses five classic works of political satire, books that lay bare the shortcomings of not only communism and fascism but also the two-party system and the quest for a perfect society where everyone is happy.
The best books on Spies, Lies and Foreign Correspondents, recommended by Richard Beeston
The former foreign correspondent takes us on a gloriously anecdotal ramble through the history of war reporting, espionage and journalistic half-truths, and recalls his encounters and friendship with “the third man” Kim Philby
Andy Borowitz recommends the best Comic Writing
Do you have to be cruel to be comedic? It often helps, says bestselling humour writer, Andy Borowitz. He picks his favourite comic novels.
The best books on Reportage and War, recommended by Martin Bell
The former BBC war reporter picks out essential reading on the Bosnia and Vietnam wars and explains why a book of poetry speaks more to him about the reality of conflict than any other writing
The best books on Journalism, recommended by Toby Young
The journalist and author praises tabloid hacks, lambasts Johann Hari, picks a bone with Christopher Hitchens, and selects five books that exemplify good reporting – or satirise it mercilessly
William Boyd on Writers Who Inspired Him
The novelist William Boyd tells us about the authors, from Chekhov to Heller, who most influenced his own development as a writer – and reveals the secret to a well-crafted sex scene
The best books on Journalism, recommended by Robert Cottrell
Newspaper journalism is on its way out, regrets the former foreign correspondent and Browser co-founder Robert Cottrell. He chooses four novels that reflect the golden days and a style guide that is an equally fine work of imagination.
The Best Cosy Mysteries, recommended by M C Beaton
North Scotland is wonderful countryside, a marvellous setting for a murder. The wind just screams from horizon to horizon – it’s like living in a speeded-up nature film. You open up the kitchen door and catch a passing sheep…
Novels and Memoirs of World War II, recommended by James Holland
Historian and novelist James Holland talks us through some of his favourite memoirs and novels about the Second World War and explains his lifelong fascination with the global conflict.
The best books on Great Letter Writers, recommended by Jonathan Keates
Queen Victoria was anything but Victorian and Lord Byron was more vulnerable than we think, says writer Jonathan Keates – who considers emails a poor substitute for a hand-written correspondence.
The best books on Schoolmasters in Fiction, recommended by David Hargreaves
Teachers play an important role in our educational and emotional development. But we have a complex relationship with them: one marked by firm boundaries and an unequal power dynamic. Here, novelist and former schoolmaster David Hargreaves discusses five classic works of fiction that portray teachers walking this line with varying degrees of success.
The best books on Evelyn Waugh and the Bright Young Things recommended by Selina Hastings