Category Archives: Fiction

Presentation Copy of Brideshead On Offer

Posted on September 11, 2020 by Jeffrey Manley

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 There is also an unpublished letter from Waugh … Continue reading →

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Waugh’s Orwellian Dystopia

Posted on September 10, 2020 by Jeffrey Manley

The Orwell Society has posted an interesting essay on the friendship of Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell with special reference to how Waugh’s 1953 novella Love Among the Ruins was intended as a response to Orwell’s 1948 novel 1984. This … Continue reading →

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Ronald Harwood (1934-2020) R I P

Posted on September 9, 2020 by Jeffrey Manley

The Daily Telegraph has an obituary of Ronald Harwood, noted primarily as a writer of screenplays based on adaptations of novels or plays.  These adaptations include such well-received films as the Oscar-winning The Pianist (2003), One Day in the Life … Continue reading →

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National Review’s Scoop Podcast

Posted on September 8, 2020 by Jeffrey Manley

National Review has posted a 30 minute podcast devoted to Waugh’s 1938 novel Scoop. In the podcast NR’s John J Miller interviews Christopher Scalia of the American Enterprise Institute. Both participants are familiar with the book as well as Evelyn … Continue reading →

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Labor Day Roundup

Posted on September 6, 2020 by Jeffrey Manley

–Sebastian Payne writing in the Financial Times describes a non-boring dinner party of his own contrivance. The venue will be Riley’s Fish Shack at Tynemouth on the northeast coast of England and the chef will be Adam Riley, apparently owner … Continue reading →

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Nicholas Shakespeare Interviewed on ABC

Posted on August 31, 2020 by Jeffrey Manley

The Australian network ABC has posted a podcast of its literary program The Bookshelf that Made Me. This is intended to go beyond the constraints of its broadcast version, and its first guest is Nicholas Shakespeare. He is best known … Continue reading →

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Roundup: Agony Aunts and Metroland

Posted on August 27, 2020 by Jeffrey Manley

–In the Daily Telegraph, Rowan Pelling muses over whether novelists would make good advice to the lovelorn “agony aunts”. Pelling has always thought Edith Wharton would be excellent and notes that Simone de Beauvoir and Anaïs Nin in fact functioned … Continue reading →

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Desmond Guinness (1931-2020) R.I.P.

Posted on August 25, 2020 by Jeffrey Manley

A recent issue of The Times carries the obituary of Desmond Guinness who died on 20 August at the age of 88. He was the younger son of two of Waugh’s closest friends during the early days of his career: … Continue reading →

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Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh

Posted on August 23, 2020 by Jeffrey Manley

In Duncan McLaren’s latest series of articles, Evelyn Waugh’s friends from Oxford are collecting at the Brideshead Festival. The last of these, by my count based on Duncan’s own projections, is Graham Greene. The first installment of the Greene episode … Continue reading →

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New Book Features Madresfield

Posted on August 22, 2020 by Jeffrey Manley

The Daily Mail has posted an excerpt from a new book about English country houses. This is by Clive Aslet, former editor of Country Life and is entitled Old Homes, New Life. It is based on visits he has made … Continue reading →

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