Daily Mail Reports Sale of Waugh’s Favorite Writing Venue

The Daily Mail online edition for 16 September reports the offer for sale of the Easton Court Hotel in Chagford, Devon. This is the place to which Evelyn Waugh retreated to do much of his writing, including that for his most popular work, Brideshead Revisited. It provided him the peace and quiet he needed away from the distractions of his family and friends.

As reported in the story by Jenny Awford, the hotel has preserved the modest library in which Waugh worked. It looks much as it did about 20 years ago when your correspondent spent a night there. Other writers who used the hotel include Patrick Leigh-Fermor, with whom Waugh overlapped on at least one occasion in 1956. They invited their mutual friend and correspondent Ann Fleming to join them, but she declined (perhaps fearing that she would be interrupting the seclusion they needed to write). Waugh also formed a friendship with the then co-owners. When one of them, Caroline Postlethwaite-Cobb, died in the late 1950s, Leigh-Fermor reported that he, along with Waugh and his wife Laura, were among the few mourners present at her funeral service in the village.

The photos accompanying the Daily Mail article suggest that the place has been well preserved. It is on offer for £1.65 million. Thanks to Robert Murray Davis for bringing this to our attention.

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