Evelyn Waugh

Diagnoses

Personal

Vocation

Family

British writer, a novelist best known for "Decline and Fall," published in September 1928, a book that made his name. His "Brideshead Revisited" was filmed as a television mini-series in the '90s. He met Evelyn Gardner in April 1927 and they married on 6/27/1928. Two years later his wife fell in love with another man and filed for divorce. His interest in Catholicism began at about this time. Through 1932, he had a difficult period with women and continued to have unsatisfactory affairs. In December 1934, he fell in love with Laura Herbert. He proposed in August 1936 and they married on 4/17/1937. He had a total of seven kids, losing one daughter at birth. His father died on 6/24/1943 and his mother in 1954. Waugh became a convert to Roman Catholicism, being received into the church on 9/29/1930. Some years later, when upon questioning his belief system toward the end of 1954, he became deeply despondent. At the end of 1953 his health was deteriorating and he suffered from delusions. He hoped for a cure from a cruise in January 1954 but he became so deranged that the captain put him ashore at Port Said. He flew to Ceylon where his wife joined him to take him back to England with a complete mental breakdown. Link to Wikipedia biography