George Weigel writing in Catholic World Report has included two biographies of Evelyn Waugh on his list of books recommended for summer reading:
Of the making of Wavian biographies there seems to be no end, but I thoroughly enjoyed Philip Eade’s Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited (Henry Holt). Unlike some of Waugh’s biographers, Eade does not start from the premise that the twentieth century’s great master of English prose was a fiend in human form: a wise decision that allows him to see, and portray, a complex personality in full. For those who want to explore Waugh’s still-immensely-readable oeuvre, Douglas Lane Patey’s The Life of Evelyn Waugh (Blackwell) remains the gold standard; those more interested in the man than in his literary accomplishment will be well served by Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited.
Other books on his list include several by Joseph Epstein, Alvin Felzenberg’s story of William F Buckley’s political journey and its impact on history in A Man and His Presidents (Yale), and Robert Harris’s “Cicero Trilogy” – Imperium, Conspirata, and Dictator (Vintage).
