A Fragment of Friendship

"This is a wonderful book. Carew’s portrait of Waugh is so marvellous because you not only see the brilliant young man but also the rather vulnerable school boy. Carew is remarkably perceptive, understanding where Waugh comes from and his profound irritation with his father. His father would read Dickens aloud to them in an over-dramatic way which made Evelyn want to go under the table. He understands about Evelyn’s religion, and also his almost sadism. There’s a section in the book when they meet as young men in London, and Waugh behaves appallingly to Carew, which ends the friendship for a time. Yes he was, and Carew sees this very clearly. But he also sees his good qualities, and his talent for friendship, as well as the difficulties he had with his home life and his brother Alec. It’s a short but acute picture of Waugh, and only a friend could have written it. Oxford dazzled him. He had the only two homosexual relationships of his life there, both of which were immensely important to him. One was with a man called Richard Pares, who became a distinguished don, and the other with a ne’er-do-well called Alastair Graham. He also met the Dandies, who had a great influence on him even though he wasn’t quite one of them. So Oxford liberated Waugh. For the first time he had the freedom to do what he wanted, and unfortunately a lot of what he wanted to do was drink. He drank terrifyingly, and belonged to a club called the Hypocrites club, where heavy drinking was the thing to do. It was there that he began his lifelong semi-alchoholism. “At Oxford, for the first time Waugh had the freedom to do what he wanted, and unfortunately a lot of what he wanted to do was drink.” Waugh didn’t do well academically at all. In fact he had a great feud with his tutor, CRMF Cruttwell. He failed academically. But it was an important time for him, as we come to see later in his portrayal of the university in Brideshead Revisited . He had a romantic association with Oxford which remained with him for all his life. His love affair with Oxford is the same as Charles Ryder’s and Sebastian Flyte’s."