Evelyn Waugh
What do Oscar Wilde, Gwen John and Evelyn Waugh have in common?
They converted to Catholicism in the past century and are among 12 notable ‘defectors to Rome’ examined by Melanie McDonagh
‘Loved ones’ are everywhere at this time of year
‘My heart will melt in your mouth,’ said my husband gallantly, unwrapping some leeks from a copy of the Sun…
When the going was good
Though she photographed many society figures of the 1930s, Ker-Seymer lacked ambition and remains largely unknown – as she herself seems to have wanted
Low life
My days pass largely in a state of inanition. The fit and able-bodied express their sympathy, claiming it’s much the…
Dons and rebels
Paula Byrne describes life at Oxford University in its eccentric heyday
The new immortals
In the world of books, a modern classic is an altogether more slippery thing than a classic: it must walk…
O what a lovely Waugh!
Sumptuous, glorious, luminous, lavish: Granada’s 40-year-old adaptation of Brideshead Revisited remains the sine qua non of mini-series, says Mark McGinness
Great Scottie
On eBay I have an alert set for ‘Scottie Wilson’. Nine times out of ten, it’s a diamanté Scottie dog…
Hidin’ Biden’s basement convention
Not everyone appreciates the extent to which the Democrats pushing Joe Biden for president are students of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.…
Letters: why is the C of E still messing around with the Carlile report?
The Carlile report Sir: The Bishop of Bath and Wells tells us (Letters, 2 December) that nobody is holding up…
Of his time
Great novelists come in all shapes and sizes, but one thing they all share is a status of half-belonging. If…
All’s fair in love and Waugh
I was reminded of Wild West films from boyhood. Then, the beleaguered garrison scanned the horizon; would the US cavalry…
Rumbles in the jungle
A CIA agent, a naive young filmmaker, a dilettante heir and a lost Mayan temple form the basis of Ned…
Torn between envy and contempt
Arriving at boarding school with the wrong shoes and a teddy bear in his suitcase, the hero of Elizabeth Day’s…
Oh, what a lovely Waugh!
My father, Evelyn Waugh, enjoyed pretending to be a horror. He wasn’t
High life
OK sports fans, what do Dame Vivien Duffield and Evelyn Waugh have in common? The answer is absolutely nothing, so…
King of Kings: The Triumph and Tragedy of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia
Great men rarely come smaller than Haile Selassie. In photographs, the golden crowns, pith helmets and grey felt homburgs he…
Club mischief
When it comes to nightclubs, many have written, but none has surpassed the Perroquet in Debra Dowa. Le tout Debra…
Polymath or psychopath?
They don’t make Englishmen like the aptly named John Freeman any more. When he died last Christmas just shy of…
A noble undertaking
By looking after the dead, funeral directors allow the living to love and mourn them
Low life
The entries are crawling in on their hands and knees for the ‘drunkest I’ve ever been’ competition to win a…
Hope against hope
At the eye of apartheid South Africa’s storm of insanities was a mania for categorisation. Everything belonged in its place,…
Diary
I am living in rustic seclusion while writing a book. Our only cultural outing of the week was to Newbury…
The unstable element
Madness is an ancient, evidently inscrutable mystery, often regarded with superstitious fear, yet can provide a refuge from reality. Sometimes,…
Long life
Whether or not you believe in the afterlife, death remains an impenetrable mystery. One moment a person is making jokes…
