Evelyn Arthur St John Waugh was born in London in 1903. The son of Arthur Waugh, the publisher and literary critic, and younger brother of Alec Waugh, the novelist, he spent his early years in a household that took its tone from his father's twin enthusiasms for literature and cricket. After school at Lancing College in Sussex, he went on to Hertford College, Oxford, where he did little work but made a number of lasting friendships and developed a lifelong fondness for alcohol. During these years he made a tentative start as both a draftsman and a writer, but when he left Oxford with a Third Class degree in History, neither of these looked likely to provide an income. After a failed attempt at carpentry, he fell back on the traditional

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First published 08 January 2001

Citation: Littlewood, Ian. "Evelyn Waugh". The Literary Encyclopedia. 8 January 2001.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4632, accessed 9 February 2010.]