Penguin UK's 2011 publication schedule includes seventeen books by Evelyn Waugh, all hardbacks except for The Complete Short Stories, which will be in paperback.
Beautiful Books will be publishing in September a new biography of Evelyn Waugh by Duncan McLaren, Evelyn!: Rhapsody for an Obsessive Love
Duncan McLaren, the acclaimed biographer of Enid Blyton, here turns his attention to Evelyn Waugh, charting a very personal course through Waugh’s life, up until the writing and publication of his final novel, Unconditional Surrender.
Adopting the same disruptive and inquisitive approach as his previous works, McLaren manages to produce an entirely new portrait of Evelyn Waugh to those painted by more traditional recent biographies.
Beginning with his own personal obsession with Decline and Fall, McLaren embarks on a real journey with his partner Kate to many of the key places in Waugh’s life, discovering along the way new insights into the triangular relationship between Waugh, his wife Evelyn Gardner and the man she left him for, John Heygate.
Both sympathetic and inimitably curious, McLaren manages to bring one of our greatest writers to life in a completely unorthodox, but very literary, manner.
"Evelyn Waugh was a pupil at Lancing during the 1930s, and wrote much about his time at the College. A portrait bust, which has been presented to the School, was unveiled by Tom Waugh, its sculptor and grandson of Evelyn Waugh, at drinks before the 2011 Lancing Foundation Dinner. The bust will be located in the Sanderson Room, which is the old library where Evelyn Waugh spent a great deal of his time as librarian." [Lancing College]
Update (March 29): A commenter points out that Waugh was not at Lancing during the 1930s and suggests 1917 to 1921 as more reasonable dates. Indeed, these are the ones provided by Martin Stannard in his Evelyn Waugh: The Early Years, 1903-1939
"Brideshead Regurgiated: Is the cult of Brideshead among Cantabridgians harmless fun, or does it conceal a regressive social agenda?" [Daniel Janes, The Cambridge Student]
The Bonham's auction Papers & Portraits: The Roy Davids Collection Part II, to be held on March 29th, includes three lots related to Evelyn Waugh: two photographic portraits (lots 245 and 246), and an unpublished letter (lot 247).
Viewing dates and other information is available here (enter "waugh" in the "Description contains" field to see only the Waugh-related items).
Update (March 30): Lot 245, a 1963 portrait of Waugh in the grounds of Combe Florey House by Mark Gerson, showing Waugh "full-length facing the camera, wearing his hat and famous dog-tooth check three-piece suit, his hands thrust into the side pockets of his jacket, standing between a pair of sphinx ornaments," sold for £840. Lot 246, a 1948 portrait of Waugh by Carl Van Vechten, appears not to have sold. Lot 247, an unpublished letter from Waugh to Terence Concannon, also fetched £840.
Lancing College parents are invited to attend this year's Evelyn Waugh Lecture, to be given on March 21st by playwright, screen writer, and film director Christopher Hampton, an old boy of the school. Lancing inaugurated the annual lecture in 2008 as a mark of respect for Evelyn Waugh, a distinguished former pupil. The playwright Sir David Hare gave the first lecture, and Alexander Waugh, grandson of Evelyn Waugh, was the guest speaker in 2009. [Lancing College]
A restaurant reviewer pays a happy visit to The Abingdon Arms pub in Beckley, Oxfordshire, where "Evelyn Waugh shared a caravan in the yard with his friend Alastair Graham in 1925 while writing Vile Bodies, that 'welter of sex and snobbery', as he called it." [Christopher Gray, Oxford Times]
Undergraduate essays on any aspect of the life and work of Evelyn Waugh are solicited for the Seventh Annual Evelyn Waugh Undergraduate Essay Contest sponsored by the Evelyn Waugh Newsletter and Studies, whose editorial board will judge the submissions and award a prize of $250.
Undergraduates in any part of the world are eligible to enter. Submissions must be made by December 31st, 2011 and should not exceed 5,000 words.
Entries (electronic submissions preferred) should be directed by email to Dr. John H. Wilson at (click to email), or by post to Dr. Wilson at:
Department of English
Lock Haven University
Lock Haven, PA 17745
USA
A "rare example of 19th-century, painted Gothic revival furniture that was once owned by John Betjeman and Evelyn Waugh has been sold by the Waugh family." [Art Sales, The Telegraph, photo]
The Guardian has selected the Waugh family for inclusion in its "Great Dynasties of the World" series. [Ian Sansom, The Guardian]
