Evelyn Waugh

Born in London in 1903, Evelyn Waugh became one of the most distinctive English prose writers of the twentieth century. He wrote novels, travel books, biographies, journalism, and reviews, and he is still widely read for the precision of his style and the dark wit of his social comedy.

His early novels, including Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies, Black Mischief, A Handful of Dust, and Scoop, made his name as a brilliant satirist of British society. Later, Brideshead Revisited brought him a broader audience, while the Sword of Honour trilogy drew on his wartime experience and showed a deeper, more serious side of his writing.

Waugh died in 1966 in Somerset. What keeps his books alive is the unusual mix he achieved: he could be very funny, very severe, and unexpectedly moving, sometimes all at once.