Category Archives: World War II

Brexit and Lord Glasgow’s Castle

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Jeffrey Manley

The Economist in this week’s “Bagehot” column opens with a reference to a wartime letter Evelyn Waugh wrote to his wife, using it as a metaphor for Britain’s current political malaise: WRITING to his wife in May 1942, Evelyn Waugh recounted … Continue reading →

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Waugh and the RAF

Posted on May 31, 2017 by Jeffrey Manley

Foreign Policy magazine is publishing excerpts from a new book by Thomas Ricks entitled Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom. The latest installment discusses the RAF pilots who prevented a German invasion in the Battle of Britain and who were predominantly … Continue reading →

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Philip Sassoon, The Duke of Kent and the Sitwells

Posted on April 22, 2017 by Jeffrey Manley

Waugh crops up in a number of articles about the upper class in the interwar period. In  Spear’s magazine, editor William Cash reviews a book by Damian Collins, MP for Folkestone and Hythe. This is a biography of Philip Sassoon entitled … Continue reading →

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Biffing: A History

Posted on April 15, 2017 by Jeffrey Manley

Today’s Times notes the issuance of the UK paperback edition of a WWII history which has Wavian overtones. This is The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: Churchill’s Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler’s Defeat by Giles Milton. In his brief notice, Lawrence James explains: The Castrator, … Continue reading →

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Ritchie-Hook Model Appears in New Book

Posted on April 12, 2017 by Jeffrey Manley

Writing in the Irish Times, author Mark Felton describes one of the British officers who appear in his new book as the model for Evelyn Waugh’s eccentric Ben Ritchie-Hook in his Sword of Honour trilogy. This is Brigadier-General Adrian Carton … Continue reading →

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Scoop Appears on Home Fires

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Jeffrey Manley

A copy of Waugh’s 1938 novel Scoop makes an appearance on the ITV drama series Home Fires. This is in Episode 1 of Series 2 which is now showing on PBS Masterpiece Theater. The cameo appearance occurs at about 18:20 … Continue reading →

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Helena and Crete

Posted on April 7, 2017 by Jeffrey Manley

The Tablet has published an article relating to correspondence that arose in response to a mention of Waugh’s novel Helena in a 1951 book review in that paper. The review by Fr Gerard Meath related to Dorothy Sayer’s book The Emperor Constantine. This is explained in an … Continue reading →

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Maud Russell Diaries in Telegraph

Posted on March 20, 2017 by Jeffrey Manley

Excerpts from the wartime diaries of Maud Russell have been published in the Daily Telegraph. In a previous post it was explained how she commissioned Rex Whistler to paint murals in her country house at Mottisfont in Hampshire where there is … Continue reading →

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WWII Yugoslavia Revisited

Posted on March 18, 2017 by Jeffrey Manley

A new collection of articles about the Balkans by Irish writer Hubert Butler has been published in Ireland. This is entitled Balkan Essays, and at its center is a group of essays collected as the “Yugoslavia Suite”. The book is … Continue reading →

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Waugh in Oldie Article: “Too Close for Comfort”

Posted on March 8, 2017 by Jeffrey Manley

The current issue of Oldie magazine has an article (“Too Close for Comfort”) by Michael Barber on novelists’ use of those they know from real life to create characters in their fiction. Barber is the author of a Brief Life of Evelyn … Continue reading →

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