Category Archives: Fiction

Crouchbackian Undercurrents Seen in Australian Novel

A recent Australian novel tells the story of a soldier who suffered through the British evacuation of Crete. This is Archipelago of Souls by Gregory Day. It is reviewed by a  writer identified only by his/her initials (“AF”) in The Saturday … Continue reading

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Sharper Sword

The South China Morning Post has published a review of Waugh’s Sword of Honour as part of a three-part retrospective review connected by each subject’s containing a knife in its title.  The other two reviews relate to a 2006 recording by a Swedish rock … Continue reading

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Waugh in Sitcom Punchline

In the latest episode of the ITV sitcom Vicious, starring Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen as a elderly gay couple, Evelyn Waugh makes an appearance.  In this episode (No. 4 of the current series) the couple are contemplating marriage after being together for … Continue reading

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Candace Bushnell, Waugh Fan

U.S. novelist Candace Bushnell is the featured writer in this week’s By the Book column in  the New York Times Book Review. She is best known for Sex and the City which was a collection of her columns from The New York Observer … Continue reading

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Waugh Among the Bohemians

The BBC is currently running a cultural documentary entitled How to be a Bohemian. It is presented by Victoria Coren Mitchell and is broadcast on Monday nights over the BBC4 channel. The first episode traced the history of artistic “bohemians” from … Continue reading

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The Trout

Earlier this week, the Daily Telegraph published a list of “the most beautiful pubs in England.” At the head of the list is The Trout in Oxford, as mentioned in Brideshead Revisited as well as the Inspector Morse TV series. This … Continue reading

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Funeral Directors Revisited

This week’s Spectator carries an article by Cressida Connolly (daughter of Waugh’s friend Cyril Connolly) urging that the negativity usually directed towards funeral directors be reassessed. They have a hard job to to that should be more appreciated. She traces … Continue reading

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The Loved One Among Top 10 Hollywood Novels

In the latest Publishers Weekly, The Loved One is named among the top 10 Hollywood novels. The list is made up by Michael Friedman whose own Hollywood novel, Martian Dawn (2006), has just been reprinted together with two previously unpublished novels, … Continue reading

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Another Brideshead Birthday Greeting

Today’s Daily Telegraph carries another article by Eleanor Doughty marking the 70th anniversary of Brideshead Revisited‘s publication on May 28, 1945. The article begins by discussing models used by Waugh for characters in the novel, breaking no new ground in … Continue reading

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Lord Marchmain and the 7th Earl

The Guardian earlier this week ran a review of a book by Michael Bloch entitled Closet Queens. This is a history of homosexuals in English politics before 1967 when the criminality of homosexuality was ended. One of the lives considered … Continue reading

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