Waugh biographer Selina Hastings will deliver the annual Evelyn Waugh Lecture at Lancing College on Thursday. The lecture is not open to the public, but anyone interested in attending should contact Claire Welling at Lancing re making special arrangements: (click to email); o2173-465708. Cost to OLs and parents is £45. The college usually posts a summary of the lecture after the event.Â
Rare book seller Peter Harrington lists as new arrivals several presentation copies of books given to Robert and Angela Laycock. Robert was one of Waugh’s commanding officers in WWII. The first is a series of four copies of books sent to Angela (including three of Love Among the Ruins (1953)), with ever increasing frustration expressed by Waugh at not receiving a thank you note. These are described as follows:
A sequence of presentation copies chronicling Waughâs humorous attack on Angie Laycockâs unresponsiveness when sent an inscribed copy of the book. The first book Waugh sent was number 29 of the deluxe issue of 350 large paper copies, inscribed by him on the limitation leaf, âFor Darling Angie the Beardless Beauty, with love from Evelynâ. Laycock failed to respond to this presentation, and so Waugh sent her a copy of the first edition, trade issue. On the front free endpaper, he drew a snake in red and black ink and wrote in capitals, âI am a very austere snake. I donât like editions de luxe. Give me the peopleâs edition & maybe I shall thank youâ. When this was ignored, Waugh subjected another copy of the trade edition to violence, removing the front board and large portions of the dust jacket and soiling and tearing the contents. A snake in black ink graces the verso of the title page, where Waugh has written, âIâm a rough tough kind of snake. This is how I like books to beâ. Finally, when no response was forthcoming, Waugh sent Laycock a blank book bound in red cloth. On the first leaf he drew an elaborately detailed snake and wrote âThis edition is limited to one copy numbered, and signed by the author. No Oneâ with âAnonâ as the signature. In the blank spaces between the snakes coils he inscribed, âI am a simple little serpent. This is the only kind of book I can readâ.
The “beardless beauty” in the inscription refers to the heroine in the novella. Photos of the inscriptions and drawings can be viewed at the link above the quote. The price for all four is £17,500.
Also on offer is a presentation copy of Basil Seal Rides Again (1963), inscribed “for Bob with love to Angie, Evelyn.” There were no subsequent copies, so either Bob must have sent a thank you note for this one, or, perhaps, Waugh did not expect one from him. The price is ÂŁ3,750.Â
A website called erenow (describing itself as a “large online library”) has posted portions of Mary Beard’s book The Parthenon (2010, revised). In the “Further Reading” section of her book, Professor Beard recommends Evelyn Waugh’s early travel book Labels. This is under Chapter 1, entitled “Why the Parthenon might make you cry”:
Walker Percyâs boredom is described in his Lost in the Cosmos: the last self-help book (London, 1984), while Evelyn Waugh came up with âStiltonâ in Labels: a Mediterranean journal (London, 1930).
In his book (p. 150) , Waugh offers no extended description of the well-known structure but remarks briefly that:
it is not ‘snow-white’ as I have seen it described by quite responsible observers, but a singularly beautiful tone in very pale pinkish brown; the nearest parallel to it of Nature that I can think of is that of the milder parts of a Stilton cheese into which port has been poured.
A blogger has posted a quote describing Waugh’s actions in the immediate aftermath of his sacking by the Daily Mail during his coverage of the Abyssinian War:
“The Daily Mail sacked Waugh [… and] in December 1935 he left Abyssinia with relief. On his way home he decided to call on an acquaintance he had met in London. She was the wife of the Counsellor at the British Legation in Tehran. Unfortunately he misremembered her posting – and sent a telegram to the British Ambassador in Baghdad, enquiring, “Would I be welcome if I came to you for weekend Evelyn Waugh”. The reply was [oddly] unenthusiastic: “Fairly. Ambassador”.
The quote is unattributed in the posting but comes from Ann Pasternak Slater’s introduction to the 2003 Everyman edition of Black Mischief, Scoop, etc., p. xvii. Pasternak Slater’s paragraph concludes:
“I did a thing at Bagdad [sic] that only happens in nightmares,” he told Lady Diana Cooper. It was the first of several cases of mistaken identity fuelling Scoop.
Waugh’s January 1936 letter to Diana Cooper tells the full story of the visit to Baghdad which, as it turns out, had a happy ending. Mr Wu and Mrs Stitch, p. 58.
The Independent carries a report about recent films with a journalism theme. Prominently featured is a new film written, directed by and starring Ricky Gervais who is still struggling to repeat his early satirical success with the BBC TV series The Office. This new film, called Special Correspondents, involves characters who are neither the “scoundrels nor worthy truth-hungry heroes” that typify journalists in films butÂ
is notable for taking the proverbial out of both stereotypes while following, rather less adroitly, in the satirical footsteps of Evelyn Waughâs 1938 novel Scoop. Like William âthe wrongâ Boot, Waughâs society journalist hero who is accidentally sent to report from the frontline of war in the fictional Ishmaelia, Bonneville [the journalist, played by Eric Bana] finds himself filing made up reports about a civil war in Ecuador, eventually staging his own kidnap along with his poor hapless radio technician Ian Finch (Gervais) â only for their fictitious broadcasts to be repeated around the globe, sparking a manhunt for a made up rebel leader and, eventually, for the utter rubbish theyâve come out with to somehow, bafflingly, become the truth.
Gervais’ film is compared to this year’s earlier critical failure, Tina Fey’s feature entitled Whiskey Tango Foxtrot which
has been mocked online as like Zero Dark 30 Rock for its jarringly contradictory failure to do either a complete MASH or a Hurt Locker.
The Independent’s reporter, Maltilda Battersby, criticises both films for failing to face the real crisis in journalism today–the fact that such correspondents as they depict would be unlikely to find an employer, like Waugh’s Lord Copper, willing or able to finance the sort of foreign journalistic mission they undertake.
Battersby’s description of Waugh’s character William Boot as a “society journalist” makes one wonder how carefully she read the novel. Perhaps, in yet another case of mistaken identity, she too has confused William (who writes of questing voles and plashy fens) with the more “fashionable” John Courteney Boot, beloved of the denizens of London society such as Margot Metroland and Julia Stitch and the “right Boot” to cover the war in Ishmaelia.
A blogger has posted on the internet his 27-page article on Waugh’s final (and much neglected) travel book Tourist in Africa. This is Dr. Robert Hickson who sees in Waugh’s descriptions of 1959 East Africa (particularly those of Tanganyika and Zanzibar) a prophecy of what may be about to happen in Europe as the result of ever-increasing immigration of non-Christian people. The essay, which is reposted from scrbd.com, is attached to his introduction on catholicism.org. The article also cites a 1961 book by James Burnham about this same region which is compared to Waugh’s descriptions. Overall, from a brief look, this appears to contain more quotation than analysis, allowing Waugh’s and Burnham’s words largely to speak for themselves. Here’s part of the introduction to give you some idea of what Dr. Hickson’s article is about:
By considering the refreshingly candid insights to be found in A Tourist in Africa (1960) â Evelyn Waughâs last book of travel â we may also thereby shed valuable light on the current challenges and limits to be faced by discordantly multi-cultured and overloaded Europe, given the stark underlying realities of geography and of demography (births, deaths, and migrations).
The complete article from scrbd.com is posted just below the introduction.
The Tablet in this week’s edition reprints from its archives the obituary of Evelyn Waugh which appeared 50 years ago on 16 April 1966:
When Evelyn Waugh died suddenly on Sunday morning, after attending Mass celebrated by his friend Fr Philip Caraman, it was a merciful dispensation at the end. He had been unwell for a long time, much troubled by insomnia, and a great depression of spirits. From early manhood he had suffered from ennui, an affliction which ought to be classed among the major ails to which suffering humanity is exposed. Gifted with great perceptive power and swift intelligence, he saw to the end of situations before they had time to unfold, realised how much or how little they contained, and found any excessive expectations so constantly cheated that he came to anticipate very little pleasure, and at most a mild and ephemeral mitigation of a heaviness of spirit. I remember once when he had ordered champagne in the afternoon at Whiteâs, and when it came he gazed sadly at it and said: âOne thinks it will be enjoyable, and then when it comes, it isnâtâ; and that was only too often what happened to him.
Two Waugh promotions have recently appeared on the internet. The first is a trailer  produced by English Touring Theatre Company and York Theatre Royal for their stage production of Brideshead Revisited which opens next week in York. The trailer has been posted on YouTube. The other is a notice posted yesterday on Facebook and  Tumblr by Turner Classic Movies commemorating the birthdays of two actors who appeared together in the 1965 Hollywood film production of The Loved One. They are John Gielgud who played Francis Hinsley and Rod Steiger who played Mr Joyboy. The postings are illustrated with photo stills from the film.
Jonkers Rare Books in Henley-on-Thames is offering seven of the presentation copies of Waugh’s books that were auctioned by Bonhams last year. See earlier post. Â These are from the collection of Waugh’s friend and fellow novelist Anthony Powell. They are priced from ÂŁ4000 to ÂŁ12500. Among them, at the highest price, are two copies of Scott-King’s Modern Europe, one of which contains an original and amusing drawing by Waugh and the other, a note apologizing for having marked up the first copy. The importance of these copies is explained in the bookseller’s description of each book:
An exceptional association linking two of the great novelists of the twentieth century.”Although two years behind him at Oxford, Powell had seen just enough of Waugh to recognise that he was bound to make his mark in the world somehow. They met again in 1927… Powell warmed to Waugh, whose self confidence had not been dented by the many setbacks he had experienced since leaving Oxford.” (Michael Barber – Anthony Powell A Life)
It was through his friendship with Powell, that Waugh found his first publisher in Duckworth where Powell worked at the time. Duckworth famously declined to publish Waugh’s first novel, Decline & Fall, but remained Waugh’s publishers choice for his travel writings. The break up of Waugh’s marriage involving Powell’s raffish friend John Heygate caused relations between Waugh and Powell to temporarily cool, but both kept up a regular correspondence and common interests saw to it that their lives intertwined for the remainder of Waugh’s life. In particular, a mutual support, born of respect for each other’s work, remained constant between the two. Upon Waugh’s death in 1966, Powell wrote, “his going means that a chunk of my own life has gone too.
Also on offer is an unrelated first edition of Decline and Fall in a near perfect dustwrapper. That is not a presentation copy, but the price is £25000. Tip of the hat to Jonathan Kooperstein who called us about these after seeing them on display at a New York City book fair.
Bloggers on two religious weblogs try to reimagine how the family issues Waugh described in Brideshead Revisited would be affected by the new Roman Catholic teachings on marriage known as Amoris Laetitia. One site is sponsored by a Protestant group (Old Life) and the other by a Roman Catholic organization (Rorate Caeli).Â
