Book description
Ronald Knox - priest, classicist and brilliant, prolific writer - was
one of the outstanding men of letters of his time. The renowned Oxford
chaplain was a friend of figures such as G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire
Belloc, and was known for his caustic wit and spiritual wisdom. Evelyn
Waugh, his devoted friend and admirer, was asked by Knox to write his
biography just before his death in 1957. The result, published after two
years of research and writing, is a tribute to a uniquely gifted man:
'the wit and scholar marked out for popularity and fame; the boon
companion of a generation of legendary heroes; the writer of effortless
felicity and versatility ... who never lost a friend or made an enemy'.
Evelyn Waugh, born on 23 October 1903, has been recognised as one of the
great prose stylists of the twentieth century. In 1930, following much
consideration, Waugh converted to the Roman Catholic Church. He became
determined to write a major Catholic biography, and selected Edmund
Campion as his subject. Although its publication caused controvery among
both Catholic and Protestant readers, it won the Hawthornden Prize.
Waugh served in the Royal Marines in the Second World War. Despite the
personal and professional problems that he experienced afterwards, he
has been recognised as one of the great prose stylists of the twentieth
century. He died in 1966 at his Combe Florey home.
