Patrick Kidd in today’s Times Diary reports a talk given at last week’s Waugh conference in Leicester by biographer Selina Hastings:
Waugh’s correspondence with Nancy Mitford, included advice on how he dealt with fan mail. Some (university clubs, creative-writing students, would-be tourists) would get a printed refusal, while nuns were sent a signed photograph. Autograph hunters were ignored. Wealthy Americans, though, would always get a long polite letter. “They are capable of buying 100 copies for Christmas presents,” he explained.