–The online journal American Thinker has posted an article by Lars Møller entitled “Evelyn Waugh’s England: A Lament for a Lost World”. Here are the opening paragraphs:
In the mid-twentieth century, the English novelist Evelyn Waugh chronicled, with elegance and melancholy, a world slipping away. His novels, particularly Brideshead Revisited, portray a vision of England rooted in tradition, faith, hierarchy, and cultural refinement — a civilization with the Church at its center, the aristocracy as its stewards, and classical education as its soul.
Today, that England is all but gone. In its place stands a nation that is multicultural, secular (albeit increasingly Islamic), and globalized — a country that has reimagined itself as a bastion of diversity and liberal democracy. For some, this transformation represents progress; for others, it marks a rupture with the spiritual and cultural coherence that once defined the British identity. Waugh’s lament goes beyond changing customs; it is also about a profound civilizational shift — the loss of a unifying narrative, the decline of intellectual and religious sophistication, and the disappearance of belonging rooted in place, faith, and history…
The entire article can be read or listened to at this link. No subscription is required.
–Aaron Bastani has an article in a recent Daily Telegraph in which he considers novelists based on their political inclinations. This in entitled “I’m a Marxist but I mourn the loss of the conservative novelist.” As a Marxist, he first goes through the leftist catalogue, and then he turns to the conservatives. Here’s an excerpt:
… it is conservative writers – absent of a didactic agenda – who feel most at ease in the complicated world of human intention. This became especially clear to me while reading Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honour trilogy. More than simply bringing the Second World War to life, Waugh’s semi-autobiographical tale offers a human perspective with which I was unacquainted.
Guy Crouchback, the story’s protagonist, gradually realises he is a man at odds with the direction of the war, and indeed history. He regards his initial crusading views about Britain’s involvement as naive, and concludes that moral impulses can only be expressed in personal acts of kindness rather than through military conquest. Reading it completely challenged how I understood the period, and the views of at least some who participated in it…
–This Literary Review has posted a review of Eleanor Doughty’s new book Heirs and Graces that was mentioned previously. This is by Richard Davenport-Hines and is entitled “Brideshead Repurposed.” Here is the opening paragraph:
A hereditary peer, when approached by Eleanor Doughty for an interview during the preparation of this book, accused her of being an agent of the deep state. Far from it. She is a Daily Telegraph journalist, although more eirenic and jocular than many of her colleagues. She has no wish, in writing a history of the British nobility since 1945, to shake foundations or to cause offence. It is evident that she admires the repose that stamps the caste of Vere de Vere. Heirs and Graces is a friendly, forgiving, good-spirited book which celebrates the adaptability, the fortitude, the oddness, the forbearance, the anger and the spite of the coronet class. Every page shows how much she likes other people. The congenial frankness she elicits from her many interviewees is winning. She finds charm in stubborn stupidity, and takes Madame de Staël’s line tout comprendre, c’est tout pardonner when confronted by merciless acquisitiveness or the havoc caused by misused vitality…
—The Times has also reviewed Doughty’s book. This is written by Alwin Turner and entitled “It’s tuff being a toff…”. Here’s an excerpt:
…The country house was part of Britain’s sense of itself. It was, said Evelyn Waugh, “our chief national artistic achievement”, and if few survive as family homes, the image remains embedded in popular culture, from Agatha Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, to Downton Abbey, via Waugh’s own Brideshead Revisited…
–Finally, The Spectator has posted a short list of good but accessible boarding schools. This includes Lancing, Waugh’s alma mater. There is also an aerial photo of the school which gives a good perspective of its surroundings. Here’s a link:
Lancing is a public boarding school for children aged 13 to 18 in West Sussex. Set within the South Downs National Park, it offers an open-air theatre, a state-of-the-art music school, an equestrian centre and even the tallest school chapel in the world. As impressive as its facilities, though, are its alumni: Evelyn Waugh, Sir David Hare and Lord (Stephen) Green to name but a few. Nowadays, many students at the college – where fees start from £12,602 – come from its sister preparatory schools in Hove and Worthing. Also arriving this month is a new headteacher, Dr Scott Crawford, who will replace Dominic Oliver after 11 years. Dr Crawford, who was previously deputy headteacher at Magdalen College School in Oxford, says he is ‘thrilled to join a school that embraces both tradition and modernity’.
It is perhaps no coincidence that nearby on the Google search there appears a link to Duncan McLaren’s description of Waugh’s Lancing school days. This was earlier posted as part of Duncan’s online biography of Waugh and is, as usual, recommended reading. It is available at this link and is also accompanied by excellent photographic support.
