Ties of blood

Fathers and sons: The autobiography of a family By Alexander Waugh, Headline, ? 11.25

The title, echoing Turgenev, is itself suggestive of a literary lineage. The book is about a literary lineage. Alexander Waugh is the grandson of Evelyn Waugh who is the best known, and perhaps the most gifted, writer in the Waugh family. Evelyn?s father was also a writer and so was his brother, Alec. Evelyn?s son, Auberon, kept the family flame alive.

This is a son?s book. Alexander?s retelling of his relationship with Auberon is touching, poignant and funny. Alexander is also a writer but not quite in the Waugh mould. He read music in Manchester University and went on to become the chief opera critic of the Mail on Sunday and the Evening Standard. He has written on Western classical music, and a book called God. He is also a composer, a cartoonist and publisher. It is a remarkable achievement even if one doubts whether all this would have fetched for Alexander the approval of Evelyn, who was notorious for his idiosyncratic views. Aloysius wouldn?t have approved either. Auberon regarded opera criticism as a ?pooftah?s profession?. Alexander notes in a footnote that the word ?pooftah? was used by Auberon not in the sense of homosexual but in the same sense as Evelyn Waugh had used the word ?pansy?. The meaning of pansy was explained by Auberon in a letter written in September 1976 to Harold Evans, the editor of The Times. ?My father used the term pansy,? Auberon wrote, ?to describe anybody connected with the Arts, or who, in conversation, demonstrated greater knowledge of the arts than seemed normal or proper to him ? i.e. more than he himself possessed. It was also used as a description of expertise: children?s damage to furniture would be judged by whether it could be mended by a carpenter, or would require a pansy to come from London to restore the damage.?

The immediate context of this book is the untimely death of Auberon. This began Alexander?s quest to understand his relationship with his father and of his own identity. The Auberon-Alexander relationship can be understood perhaps from the last conversation that father and son had. He told his son, ?Ah, a little bird has come to see me. How delightful.? Alexander corrected him, ?No, Papa it?s me. I suppose you must have thought I was a bird because I was whistling as I came up the stairs.? Auberon clarified, ?It?s a bit more complicated than that.? As he said this. Alexander noticed that there was ?a hint of the old twinkle?. The son could not be surprised that the last conversation had been a joke. Papa was always funny, Alexander notes with a dash of poignancy.

Auberon, when he had reflected on his father, Evelyn, had also underlined the latter?s sense of fun and his wit. He surprised most people when he wrote that Evelyn was never seriously interested in pedigree and that he was not a conservative since politics bored him. To Auberon, the most distinctive feature of Evelyn Waugh was the fact that ?he was the funniest man of his generation. He scarcely opened his mouth but to say something extremely funny. His house and life revolved around jokes.? It is difficult to imagine that the author of Brideshead Revisited and The Sword of Honour Trilogy was not seriously interested in pedigree and lineage. But a son?s view, significant though it always is, may not always be the view of readers. The Waughs loved/love laughing at most things, including themselves. ?Beware of seriousness: it is a form of stupidity?: this was a kind of family maxim for three generations of Waughs.