David Wykes – författare

Waugh's life and his literary life exist in fascinating, dynamic relationship. Virtually all of his fiction was autobiographical, yet he maintained that his novels were 'objects', unrelated to the life of their author. This study traces the shifting relationship of ascertainable fact and imaginative fiction throughout Waugh's career, focusing on the endless negotiation he conducted between life and art, and on why, from being author of the anarchic, hilarious Decline and Fall , he transformed himself into the author of the romantic, eschatological Brideshead Revisited .

Evelyn Waugh was one of the most autobiographical novelists of all time and his literary life and personal life were inextricably linked. David Wykes's insightful study shows that the complex ideas Waugh held about himself as a writer are essential for our understanding of his work. In his writing, fiction and non-fiction, Waugh depended and drew on reality, seeing himself as a historian - a major driving force in his literary life.