In 1965, Evelyn Waugh helped found the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales. The current issue of Regina magazine contains an article (“Shades of Evelyn Waugh: An Update on the Latin Mass in England & Wales“) on the history and activities of the LMS.
Evelyn Waugh: Fictions, Faith and Family
From the publisher:
Evelyn Waugh: Fictions, Faith and Family is a wide-ranging survey of the prolific literary career of one of the most popular English writers of the 20th century. Michael G. Brennan here identifies three major themes as central to any understanding of Waugh’s work: Catholicism, society and the concept of family. From Decline and Fall (published in 1928) to his final writings, this book draws not only on the major novels and short stories but also Waugh’s substantial journalistic output, his private journals and correspondences and unpublished draft manuscripts. Through this comprehensive and systematic exploration, Brennan demonstrates the sustained creative importance of Catholicism to Waugh’s literary work. In addition, the book goes on to consider how Evelyn Waugh’s descendants – his son Auberon and his grandson Alexander Waugh – have echoed and developed these literary concerns in their own writing.
Nunney is a village near Frome in the English county of Somerset which Evelyn Waugh visited while house hunting in 1936. An article on the Visit Nunney website tells the story.
A five-year, £800,000 project to publish a scholarly edition of the complete works of Evelyn Waugh was launched at a colloquium held July 5 – 7 at the University of Leicester.
The 42-volume edition, to be published by the Oxford University Press, will likely form the largest ever scholarly edition of a British author.
From the Guardian:
She was known as Teresa “Baby” Jungman, a beauty among the bohemian “bright young things” of 1920s English society, whose high-class hedonism inspired Evelyn Waugh to write Vile Bodies. She was also the unrequited love of Waugh’s life, and the recipient of a huge number of letters from the author which, seven years after her death at the age of 102, are finally to be published.
Exciting news for all EW enthusiasts, particularly the Society members who heard Alexander Waugh tell the story of his discovery of the letters at the 2011 Evelyn Waugh Conference in the UK.
From The Stage:
A BBC awards scheme that launched the careers of actors such as Stephen Tompkinson and Richard Griffiths has named this year’s winners, with all the recipients being cast in a major seven-part adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honour trilogy.
The Carleton Hobbs bursary award, which this year marks its 60th anniversary, gives four actors graduating from drama school a contract with the BBC Radio Drama Company. Formerly known as the BBC Repertory Company, actors working with the RDC perform in plays, series, dramatisations and readings that are broadcast on Radio 3, Radio 4, the World Service and Radio 4 Extra.
This year’s winners have all been cast in an adaptation of Waugh’s Sword of Honour – which comprises the novels Men at Arms, Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender. Sword of Honour has been dramatised by Jeremy Front for Radio 4 and will be broadcast in September.
The Spectator has made available online a searchable archive of 180 years (1828 – 2008) of the magazine. Initial search results can be further refined by category: Article, Letter, Fiction, etc., which will be a boon to researchers of all kinds.
Some sample queries of the archive: Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, Henry Green, Anthony Powell, Nancy Spain.
The Fertile Fact is a new literary website which “celebrates the speculative nature of biographical writing. We invite biographers/experts/super-fans to draw on their knowledge and compile a list of five things or aspects of modern life that they think their biographee/subject/idol, were they writing/exploring/creating today, might have liked or loathed.
Two recent posts concerned Evelyn Waugh, the first with Selina Hastings, and the second with Michael Barber.
Evelyn Waugh, the highly regarded 1995 biography by Selina Hastings, is being republished in the UK this month by Capuchin Classics, with publication in the US later this year.
Several author lectures and books signings have been scheduled to coincide with the republication of the book, at which Ms. Hastings will discuss her biography and the relationship between Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh.
May 9th, 6:30 p.m., free
Belgravia Books, 59 Ebury Street, London SW1W 0NZ. Email (click to email) to book your place.
May 15th, 7:00 p.m., tickets £7
Last Tuesday Society, Location: 11 Mare Street, London E8 4RP. Tickets can be purchased online.
May 20th, 7:00 p.m., £2 donation suggested
Primrose Hill Community Library, Sharpleshall Street, London NW1 8YN
A full listing of these events can be found at the author’s website.
A report by Sussex Living magazine on the 2013 Evelyn Waugh Lecture at Lancing College.
