The interactive internet site Ranker has started a new rating survey in which Evelyn Waugh is included. A previous posting has him under consideration for the rating of Best Roman Catholic Author, in which he is currently listed as #3. See previous post where earlier this month he had achieved the rank of #12 on that list. The new entry, however, is based on a false premise. It seeks responses to the rating for the Most Famous Alumnus of Sherborne School in Dorset. Evelyn is currently listed at #2 in that category, outranked only by Chris Martin, a member of the British rock band Coldplay. It was, however, Alec Waugh (Evelyn’s older brother) and his father Arthur who were Old Shirburnians. Evelyn was unable to attend that school due to a scandal caused by publication of a book by Alec entitled Loom of Youth (1917) which depicted a homosexual affair between schoolboys. Evelyn was instead enrolled at Lancing College in Sussex where he did well enough to earn a scholarship to Hertford College, Oxford. Another O.S. with a Waugh connection on the list at #4 is actor Jeremy Irons who played Charles Ryder in the 1981 Granada TV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. Other writers appearing below Evelyn on the list are poet Cecil Day-Lewis (#5) and novelist John le Carré (#7).
