Person    | Male  Born 1903  Died 1966

Evelyn Waugh

Writer. Born 11 Hillfield Road, West Hampstead. Wrote "Decline and Fall", "Brideshead Revisited". And we have to tell you the strange but true fact that Waugh's first wife's name was also Evelyn. Their friends resorted to the terminology of "she-Evelyn" and "he-Evelyn". The Evelyns had a disastrous honeymoon during which she caught pneumonia. In 1928 they moved into a flat at 17a Canonbury Square. She then admitted to an affair and with their marriage barely 15 months old he filed for divorce.

For other examples of this affinity for similar names see Jean Rhys and Julian Huxley.

Waugh could be wickedly funny. An entry in his diary for March 1964, on hearing that doctors had removed a benign tumour from the much-disliked Randolph Churchill, has Waugh saying "A typical triumph of modern science to find the only part of Randolph that was not malignant and remove it."

Died at home in Somerset.

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Evelyn Waugh

Commemorated ati

Evelyn Waugh

English Heritage Evelyn Waugh, 1903 - 1966, writer, lived here.

Read More

Rules Restaurant 2

Rules®. London's oldest restaurant. In the year Napoleon opened his campaign ...

Read More

Other Subjects

E.F. Benson

E.F. Benson

Edward Frederic.  Writer best know for the Mapp and Lucia series set in the village of Tilling, actually Rye, which Benson first visited to see Henry James who was staying there. Born Wellington C...

Person, Literature

1 memorial
John Forster

John Forster

Writer and literary adviser. Born Newcastle upon Tyne. Came to London in 1828 to attend University College and to enter Inner Temple.  A good friend of Charles Dickens he published his biography in...

Person, Literature

2 memorials
Fanny Kemble

Fanny Kemble

Actress. Born Newman Street. 1830 a witness at the death of Huskisson. 1832 travelled to America with her father and wrote about her experiences there. Married an American who inherited a fortune i...

Person, Literature, Race Issues, Theatre, USA

1 memorial
Charlotte Riddell

Charlotte Riddell

Born as Charlotte Eliza Lawson Cowan in Ireland.  Moved to London in 1855.  Married Joseph Hadley Riddell, a hot water engineer in 1857. They lived in St John's Lodge 1868 - 1873.  Published her fi...

Person, Literature, Ireland

1 memorial
Winifred Darch

Winifred Darch

Author and teacher. Born in Brighton. A prolific writer of novels, mainly for girls. From 1906 to 1935, she worked as a teacher and housemistress at the High School for Girls, Loughton. We cannot f...

Person, Education, Literature

1 memorial