''Brisk, lively and wonderfully entertaining'' John Banville''Excellent . . . read this book'' Literary Review''The best single-volume life of the author available'' Irish Times

The much mythologised author of Decline and Fall, A Handful of Dust and Brideshead Revisited was hailed by Graham Greene as ''the greatest novelist of my generation'', yet reckoned by Hilaire Belloc to have been possessed by the devil. Evelyn Waugh''s literary reputation has continued to rise since Greene''s assessment in 1966.

Fifty years after his death, Philip Eade draws on extensive unpublished sources to paint a fresh and compelling portrait of this endlessly fascinating man, telling the full story of his dramatic, colourful and frequently bizarre life.

The biography of the last Ranee of Sarawak, born into the aristocracy as Sylvia Brett in 1885 and destined to become ''Queen of the Headhunters''.''Jaw-dropping ... If you thought White Mischief the last word in English expatriate decadence, you haven''t yet met Sylvia and the Brookes'' The TimesSylvia Brooke was the consort of His Highness Sir Vyner Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, the last in a bizarre dynasty of English despots who ruled their jungle kingdom on Borneo until 1946. The White Rajahs were long held up as model rulers, but the spectacularly eccentric behaviour of Ranee Sylvia - self-styled Queen of the Headhunters - changed everything. This is the compelling story of her part in their downfall.

''Brisk, lively and wonderfully entertaining'' John Banville''Excellent . . . read this book'' Literary Review''The best single-volume life of the author available'' Irish Times

The much mythologised author of Decline and Fall, A Handful of Dust and Brideshead Revisited was hailed by Graham Greene as ''the greatest novelist of my generation'', yet reckoned by Hilaire Belloc to have been possessed by the devil. Evelyn Waugh''s literary reputation has continued to rise since Greene''s assessment in 1966.

Fifty years after his death, Philip Eade draws on extensive unpublished sources to paint a fresh and compelling portrait of this endlessly fascinating man, telling the full story of his dramatic, colourful and frequently bizarre life.

The biography of the last Ranee of Sarawak, born into the aristocracy as Sylvia Brett in 1885 and destined to become ''Queen of the Headhunters''.''Jaw-dropping ... If you thought White Mischief the last word in English expatriate decadence, you haven''t yet met Sylvia and the Brookes'' The TimesSylvia Brooke was the consort of His Highness Sir Vyner Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, the last in a bizarre dynasty of English despots who ruled their jungle kingdom on Borneo until 1946. The White Rajahs were long held up as model rulers, but the spectacularly eccentric behaviour of Ranee Sylvia - self-styled Queen of the Headhunters - changed everything. This is the compelling story of her part in their downfall.