Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Sunday, 10 April 2016

Evelyn Waugh


Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the death in 1966 of Evelyn Waugh.


Image. bbc.org.uk

A friend recently sent me the link to an article about Waugh in The Spectator by his son Septimus which seeks - and I think very reasonably so to do - to redress the image that has developed of Evelyn Waugh as a misanthropic cumudgeon. The article can be read at http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/03/let-evelyn-waugh-back-into-combe-florey-churchyard/

The background to the dispute over acess to the grave can be read at  More News on Waugh Graves | The Evelyn Waugh Society

I am a great admirer of Evelyn Waugh and though not really one for visiting literary graves did make the point when on holiday in Somerset with a friend a quarter of a century or so ago to make a detour to visit the churchyard at Combe Florey and pay my respects. 

 

Image:findagrave.com 

Pray for the repose of his soul

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