Category Archives: Diaries

Interviewed by a Smart-Aleck Baboon

In the American Scholar, literary critic, essayist and screenwriter Arthur Krystal has written a memoir of his experiences with Jacques Barzun, his teacher and mentor at Columbia in the 1970s and later his friend and colleague. Among the numerous literary … Continue reading

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Late Winter Roundup

–The Daily Mail has posted some excerpts from the new and unexpurgated edition of the diaries of Chips Channon. Two of these new entries involve comments of Channon about Evelyn Waugh: Evelyn Waugh – Sunday, December 16, 1934 Lunch was … Continue reading

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Roundup: Brideshead to Bridgerton

–A new Netflix serial “Bridgerton” has been compared in several papers to Waugh’s novel Brideshead Revisited and its film and TV adaptations. Here an excerpt from the Bloomsberg News: … “Bridgerton” is a sly and sexy Netflix Inc. series set … Continue reading

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Waugh’s Christmas 1945

Here is Waugh’s diary entry for his Christmas 75 years ago–Wednesday 26 December 1945: Maria Teresa and Bron have arrived, he ingratiating, she covered with little meddals and badges, neurotically voluble with the vocabulary of the lower-middle class–‘serviette’, ‘spare room’.  … Continue reading

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117th Anniversary of Evelyn Waugh’s Birthday

On this 117th anniversary of Waugh’s birthday, we look back 80 years to see how he celebrated the occasion on 28 October 1940. This was nearly a year after he had joined the Royal Marines. He had arrived back from … Continue reading

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Roundup: Baby Jungman, Proust, Japan and Zeppelins

–Mark McGinness has written an obituary of Desmond Guinness for the Australian literary magazine Quadrant. In this he adds another Waugh connection not mentioned in the English and Irish papers. See previous post. After his marriage to his first wife … Continue reading

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Presentation Copy of Brideshead On Offer

London booksellers Peter Harrington have a 1945 copy of Brideshead Revisited on offer. This is a presentation copy to Mgr Alfred Gilbey, chaplain to Roman Catholic students at Fisher House, Cambridge University. There is also an unpublished letter from Waugh … Continue reading

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New Biography of Graham Greene

A new biography of Graham Greene has been published. The UK edition is entitled Russian Roulette and is written by Richard Greene (no relation but editor of a collection of Graham’s letters). The book is reviewed in the Sunday Times by … Continue reading

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Waugh’s V-J Day

V-J Day celebrates its 75th anniversary this week. The Japanese surrendered on 15 August 1945 in Japan but the news was received when it was 14 August in the UK and USA.  In Britain this was a much lesser event … Continue reading

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Waugh and the 1945 General Election

Waugh returned to England via Italy from his assignment in Yugoslavia on 15 March 1945. He devoted the last few weeks in Italy to stirring up opposition to the new Communist regime of Marshall Tito. He spent most of the … Continue reading

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