Waugh biographers Paula Byrne and Philip Eade will speak on the author’s life and work at this year’s Oxford Literary Festival. The joint presentation will mark the 50th anniversary of Waugh’s death on 10 April 1966. They will appear on Wednesday 6 April at 4pm in Worcester College’s Linbury Building. Eade’s book Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited will be published 10 April in the U.K. It will include previously untold episodes of Waugh’s life and explore the reasons for the continuing popularity of his work. Byrne’s book Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead was published in 2009. It is an example of what she calls “partial lives” and focuses on the friendships and experiences that informed Waugh’s writing of Brideshead Revisited.
Byrne will also speak on Saturday 2 April on the subject of her new book Kick: JFK’s Forgotten Sister and Heir to Chatsworth. This is a biography of Kathleen Kennedy, considered by Waugh to be a friend. He advised her against marriage to William Cavendish, an Anglican and heir to the Dukedom of Devonshire and Chatsworth Estate. She ignored his advice and alienated her Roman Catholic family. Her talk will take place in the Oxford Martin School, Seminar Room at 1000 am. See details here.
