Evelyn Waugh was an English writer from London. He had a successful career as a novelist, a biographer, a travel writer, a journalist, and a book reviewer. He is primarily remembered for the satirical novel "Decline and Fall" (1928),the autobiographical novel "A Handful of Dust" (1934),the nostalgia-themed family saga "Brideshead Revisited" (1945),and the war-themed trilogy "Sword of Honour" (1952-1961).
Waugh was born in 1903 in West Hampstead, London. His father was the professional writer and literary critic Arthur Waugh (1866-1943). Through his father's side of the family, Waugh was a descendant of the nonconformist preacher Alexander Waugh (1754-1827). His ancestor had co-founded the London Missionary Society, an interdenominational evangelical missionary society. Waugh's known ancestry included English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish and French Huguenot people.
Waugh was home-schooled by his mother until the age of 7. In September 1910, Waugh began life as a day pupil at the Heath Mount preparatory school. By that time, he had started writing short stories as a hobby. At school, Waugh was a notorious school bully. One of his victims was Cecil Beaton, later a professional photographer who recorded his memories of Waugh's bullying. In his free time from school, Waugh wrote theatrical plays and convinced his neighborhood friends to perform them with him.
During the early years of World War I, Waugh and several of his schoolmates from Heath Mount served as messengers for the War Office. In his final year at Heath Mount, Waugh served as the editor of the school magazine "The Cynic". Waugh aspired to attend the boarding school Sherborne School, which his father had once attended. But after his older brother Alec was expelled from Sherborne due to his homosexuality, Waugh learned that the school would not even consider him as a candidate student. In 1917, Waugh instead became a student of the Lancing College, which he considered to be inferior to Sherborne.
During his time at Lancing, Waugh published an essay about Cubism in an art magazine. It was his first published work. His teacher J. F. Roxburgh (1888-1954) encouraged Waugh's aspirations for a writing career. Another teacher, Francis Crease, trained Waugh in the arts of calligraphy and decorative design. Waugh won several prizes for art and literature during his student years at Lancing. He left Lancing in December 1921, after winning a scholarship to read Modern History at Hertford College, Oxford.
During his early years in Oxford, Waugh worked as a reporter for two rival student publications: "Cherwell" and "Isis". He also worked as a film reviewer for "Isis". Waugh soon joined the "Hypocrites' Club" (1921-1925),a student club for heavy drinkers and homosexuals. Waugh had his first homosexual relationships with some of the club's fellow members. Waugh devoted part of his time to writing reviews and short stories for publication, part of his time to improving his skills as a graphic artist, and part of his time partying with the club members. He neglected his formal studies, and was frequently arguing with his history tutor C. R. M. F. Cruttwell (1887-1941). Their adversarial relationship turned into mutual hatred, and Waugh continued mocking Crutwell in his literary works for decades.
Waugh left Oxford in 1924, without earning a degree. He started work on a novel, and enrolled at the art school Heatherley School of Fine Art. He soon quit his studies due to boredom, and started looking for a job. In January 1925, Waugh started working as a teacher at Arnold House, a boys' preparatory school in North Wales. Used to hanging out with large groups of friends, Waugh had trouble adjusting to the social isolation of his new position.
Waugh quit his teaching job in the summer of 1925, as he was promised a secretarial job by the experienced writer C. K. Scott Moncrieff (1889-1930). Moncrief decided against hiring him, but Waugh learned this after his resignation. At about the same time, a completed novel by Waugh was rejected by a publisher. Waugh felt desperate, and he experienced a failed suicide attempt. He spent the following couple of years as a school teacher at the village of Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire and at Notting Hill in London.
Waugh started writing commercially-published fiction in 1926. In 1927, he secured a contract to write a full-length biography of the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1882-1882). This biography was published in April 1928, and
