—The Sunday Times carries a review by novelist and critic A N Wilson of the book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister by Charles Spencer. In the course of this, which is largely a defense of Spencer’s book, Wilson cites an Evelyn Waugh character:
“…There was no one else like [Diana]. She possessed the most extraordinary magnetism, power, strength. Evelyn Waugh’s character Anthony Blanche bemoaned the “fatal English gift of charm” and said, “charm is the great English blight”.
Here is a link to Wilson’s article.
–The Independent newspaper has a discussion of a new book by Tim Spicer about the wartime SAS. This is entitled An Axe and Four Balloons and begins with a discussion about recruitment from the membership of White’s. Here’s an excerpt:
…The founder of the Special Air Service, David Stirling, was a member. So was his brother, Bill, who took over when David was a prisoner of war in Colditz Castle. So was Robert Laycock, who established commando forces during the war, employed David Stirling, and therefore was a midwife to what is today the world’s most special force, the Special Air Service.
Evelyn Waugh, also an SAS officer, by Spicer’s account a vile snob unpopular with officers and men alike, was a member of White’s, which he thinly disguised as “Bellamy’s” in his Sword of Honour Trilogy. Fitzroy Maclean led secret allied operations in Yugoslavia and Albania, along with Randolph Churchill. Paddy Leigh Fermor captured a German general in Crete. They all networked at the bar of White’s…
I don’t know whether Waugh owed his SAS recruitment to membership at White’s, which would have been of fairly recent vintage (c. 1941) at the time the group was being formed. He and Randolph reportedly became members of White’s at about that time. That was after they would have returned with the SAS from the evacuation of Crete, so their White’s membership would presumably post date their SAS recruitment. The reference might have mentioned that Waugh also took part in Randolph’s Yugoslavia mission after Waugh had been left behind in England by the SAS in 1944.
–Campion Hall at Oxford is marking its 130th anniversary. Here’s an excerpt from its announcement:
…A new chapter began under Fr Martin Cyril D’Arcy SJ, who became Master in 1933. Through Lady Frances Horner, D’Arcy was introduced to the celebrated architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, who offered to design a new home for the Hall.
Work began on a site in Brewer Street in 1934, and the community moved into the new building the following year. Lutyens’ design incorporated the existing Micklem Hall and included the Main Chapel, Refectory and Library.
The writer Evelyn Waugh donated the royalties from his biography of St Edmund Campion to the Hall, helping to pay for the decoration of the new Lady Chapel by muralist Charles Mahoney…
The full article can be accessed here.
