Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead

A terrifically engaging and original biography of one of England’s greatest novelists, Evelyn Waugh, and the glamorous, eccentric, debauched, and ultimately tragic family that provided him with the most significant friendships of his life and inspired his masterpiece, Brideshead Revisited. Fans of The Mitfords, D.J. Taylor’s Bright Young People, and Alexander Waugh’s Fathers and Sons, as well as Anglophiles in general, will find much to savor in Paula Byrne’s wonderful Mad World. |

Evelyn Waugh was already famous when Brideshead Revisited was published in 1945. Written at the height of the war, the novel was, he admitted, of no "immediate propaganda value." Instead, it was the story of a household, a family and a journey of religious faith—an elegy for a vanishing world and a testimony to a family he had fallen in love with a decade earlier.

The Lygons of Madresfield were every bit as glamourous, eccentric and compelling as their counterparts in Brideshead Revisited. William Lygon, Earl Beauchamp, was a warmhearted, generous and unconventional father whose seven children adored him. When he was forced to flee the country by his scheming brother-in-law, his traumatised children stood firmly by him, defying not only the mores of the day but also their deeply religious mother.

In this engrossing biography, Paula Byrne takes an innovative approach to her subject, setting out to capture Waugh through the friendships that mattered most to him. She uncovers a man who, far from the snobbish misanthrope of popular caricature, was as loving and as complex as the family that inspired him. This brilliantly original biography unlocks for the first time the extent to which Waugh's great novel encoded and transformed his own experiences. In so doing, it illuminates the loves and obsessions that shaped his life, and brings us inevitably to the secret that dared not speak its name.

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“’Mad World’ is the perfect title for this sparkling book, a hybrid of family romance, incisive literary criticism, and deliciously hot gossip.” - Martin Rubin, Washington Times

“Altogether excellent and wickedly entertaining…Scandalous detail enlivens every page of this delicious biography…Over the years I’ve read all the major biographies of Evelyn Waugh, and Byrne’s is…the fastest moving and the most fun.” - Michael Dirda, Washington Post

“An engaging book…remarkably thorough…Deftly interweaving biographical details and textual analysis, Byrne makes the connections between Waugh’s art, Roman Catholic faith, and life dance.” - Heller McAlpin, Christian Science Monitor

“An utterly captivating and generous book with all the intimacy of a diary and the scholarly soundness of a fine biography…You’ll be hard pressed to set it down.. A singular accomplishment.” - Chicago Tribune

“An utterly captivating and generous book with all the intimacy of a diary and the scholarly soundness of a fine biography…A singular accomplishment.” - Chicago Tribune

“A splendid new book…While displaying the research values of a scholar Byrne also manages to write with the panache and timing of a popular novelist.” - Alexander Waugh, Daily Beast

“A splendid new book…Paula Byrne taps a particularly rich seam…She has taken great care to get her facts right and has unearthed a great deal of new material…While displaying the research values of a scholar Byrne also manages to write with the panache and timing of a popular novelist…Her portrait is sympathetic and therefore, automatically far more interesting…Ms. Byrne is convincing and entertaining in all she writes. It really doesn’t matter how many books about Evelyn Waugh you have already read. This one is a real winner.” - Alexander Waugh, Daily Beast

“A sharp, entertaining literary biography…A perceptive study of how Evelyn Waugh emerged from middle-class beginnings to inhabit the tony corridors described in BRIDESHEAD REVISITED.” - Kirkus Reviews

“A considerable contribution to literary history…includes enough gossipy asides to intrigue readers.” - Publishers Weekly

“Remarkable…not only a meticulously researched biography but also an enjoyable read.” - Library Journal

“Well-researched and absorbing.” - Booklist

“Altogether excellent and wickedly entertaining…Scandalous detail enlivens every page of this delicious biography…Over the years I’ve read all the major biographies of Evelyn Waugh, and Byrne’s is…the fastest moving and the most fun.” - Michael Dirda, Washington Post