PHOTOGRAPHIC SESSION: OCTOBER, 1963
Or
EVELYN WAUGH'S 60th BIRTHDAY
ONE
Evelyn liked to celebrate his birthday, and would often make a note in his diary of presents received as well as a list of accomplishments over the preceding twelve months. By his 60th birthday he was no longer keeping a diary, but he did organise a special present for himself: a second visit by portrait photographer, Mark Gerson.
Gerson had come to specialise in taking photos of writers. A list of his subjects would include Ted Hughes, T.S. Eliot, Doris Lessing, Iris Murdoch, Harold Pinter, John Betjeman, Muriel Spark, Edith Sitwell, Anthony Burgess, William Golding, Edna O'Brien, Barbara Pym, Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, Anita Brookner, Ben Okri, A.S. Byatt, Kazuo Ishiguro and Seamus Heaney. In other words, all the celebrated authors of the day. Question: Who did Mark Gerson state was his most intriguing subject? Answer: Evelyn Waugh. Why was this the case? I think that will become clear as this essay proceeds.
Emma Burn, in an introduction to her show of Mark Gerson photographs of authors at the National Portrait Gallery in 1994, tells us: 'When he was commissioned to photograph Waugh on his 60th birthday Gerson was aware of his irascible personality.' Quite. When Gerson got the call in 1963, his mind would have flashed back four years to April 1959, arriving late at Combe Florey for his previous meeting with a very annoyed Waugh who had then grilled the photographer as they partook of the pre-lunch drinks that Waugh insisted on, as his family of six children continued to wait for their mid-day meal.
When Gerson arrived in October of 1963, Waugh was friendly but distant. He opened a bottle of claret and gave Gerson a cigar, no doubt so that his guest could help Evelyn toast his own birthday. 'After half an hour Gerson was so drunk he was unable to take a single photograph and had to have an aspirin and go and lie down. This pleased Waugh immensely, and when Gerson reappeared he was in a far more expansive mood. He took him into the garden…'
Gerson took black and white photos of Waugh outside, and a series of colour pictures of him inside the house. Which came first? The phrasing of Emma Burn's essay suggests the outside pictures were taken first. In any case, I'll assume that's what happened.
Here Evelyn stands with the help of a stick at the bottom of the short flight of stairs that lead from the front door of Combe Florey. 
Mark Gerson, Evelyn Waugh, 1963. Photo available from Bridgeman Images.
He looks somewhat stiff-legged in this photo.
Let's see if the photographer and his subject warmed to their task.
Waugh had a sign affixed to the stone post on top of which had been carved a large, stone pot. The sign famously states: 'NO ADMITTANCE ON BUSINESS'. 
Mark Gerson, Evelyn Waugh, 1963.
"I appear to have been admitted on business."
"Certainly! You are my invited guest. Have you taken your second picture of the day, Mark? Do you need to lie down again? The spare room is always at your disposal."
Gerson moved around getting different angles of his subject. The next picture shows the view downhill to the gatehouse on the edge of the property. Evelyn retained much the same pose as in the shots above. Legs straight and with stick supporting him. 
Mark Gerson, Evelyn Waugh, 1963.
Evelyn asked the photographer: "What year were you born?"
"1921."
"You are 42, then. In your prime. Hence your ability to leap about like a goat. As you can see, I move with difficulty and with the help of a stick. I had an unfortunate landing from a parachute jump during the war. My knee has never been quite the same since. But, at the time, the injury seemed like a godsend. It bought me enough leave from the army to write Brideshead Revisited. Badge of pride, this stick. Sword of honour, this stick. Have you got the suggestion of all that in your compositions so far?"
"Err… yes, I think so."
In walking a little further, Mark Gerson later recalled that they came across two stone sphinxes that Evelyn had newly acquired. The photographer told Emma Burn: 'They lay willy-nilly on the grass, with a startling resemblance to their owner. I put them side by side and asked him to step into the middle. "What's all this about? He queried suspiciously. "Just stand there," I said. He glared. - I took two shots and knew I had a winner."
It's the photograph that Gerson identifies as his favourite. So let us savour the masterpiece:
Mark Gerson, Evelyn Waugh, 1963. Photo available from Bridgeman Images.
The stick has been cast aside for the shot. Perhaps Gerson suggested it disturbed the symmetry of the scene. I can't help thinking of the sphinxes as Waugh's female correspondents. Maybe, Nancy Mitford and Diane Cooper. Or Daphne Acton and Anne Fleming. All four women were still writing to Evelyn at this time. In fact, earlier on the day of his birthday - earlier on the day of this photograph - a letter from Nancy had arrived. Upon reading it, Waugh began his reply 'Dearest Nancy, Your odious letter was on my breakfast table on the morning of my 60th birthday.' She had pointed out one or two things that she couldn't quite go along with in Basil Seal Rides Again and complained that the story, though she had loved swallowing it whole, was too short.
Evelyn striking a pose for Mark Gerson. Evelyn becoming thoughtful as he stood there for the camera.
Mark Gerson, Evelyn Waugh (detail), 1963.
"Accomplishments of my previous year? Chief amongst them is the writing of Basil Seal Rides Again which has been printed in a deluxe version that I will show you when we return to the house. But one detail comes to me now as I stand between these sphinxes. In my story, Basil was undergoing a cure at a sanatorium in Kent in order to appear less fat and red. He had been described by the man who looked after the coats and hats at his London club as 'florid', and he resented the epithet. After a week of drinking nothing but turnip juice and eating no more than the odd carrot, he had lost sixteen pounds. Of course, Basil's experience was based on my own of earlier this year, and perhaps you can still see the evidence of my Belsen-like state? Skeleton-man, is that what I look like through your viewfinder? Wraith? Dug-up corpse?"
"I see there is room for a slight expansion of your waistline."
"Very kind of you to say so, Mark. Basil managed to persuade an employee of the sanatorium to allow him a drink of brandy. Two snorts in fact. An amount that Basil would have been used to imbibing twice a day, in addition to a variety of other potations, and feel nothing of it. On this occasion, the effect was immediate. Basil subsided to a mat and lay in ecstasy, feeling quite outside his body. The ditty that came to my character's mind was "He rolls through the air with the greatest of ease, that darling young man on the flying trapeze." Does that remind you of a recent experience, Mark?"
Gerson smiled. Still focussing on the job in hand. Still intent on making sure he had the money shot.
Mark Gerson, Evelyn Waugh, 1963. Photo available from Bridgeman Images.
Waugh tried to create a clearer picture for his visitor, by singing:
"He rolls through the air with the greatest of ease.
That daring young man on the flying trapeze."
It's how Evelyn Waugh thought of himself on his 60th birthday. With irony and humour, of course. But it still counts.
TWO
More photos were taken indoors. This first shows Waugh in the entrance hall, Gerson perhaps having daring-young-manned up the stairs to take it.
Mark Gerson, Evelyn Waugh in his Entrance Hall, 1963.
What do you notice about all the four following photos that were taken by Mark Gerson on this occasion?
.
.
Mark Gerson, Evelyn Waugh (various), 1963.
The photos are sourced from such a variety of places that all sorts of differences in grayscale and context are liable to distract you, dear reader. But in each of the photos Evelyn is wearing a red (as we'll see) carnation buttonhole.
Yes, in order for Evelyn not to appear florid, as Basil had done in Basil Seal Rides Again, the photographer had come up with a variation on his 1959 idea. On the earlier occasion, he had suggested that other people in the group photos wore a bright red garment. Laura's blouse, Septimus's jersey and Harriet's skirt. On this occasion, with the focus on Evelyn alone, the decoy would be a livid, red flower in Evelyn's lapel. Did the strategy work? Florid carnation; lilywhite face? You decide:
Mark Gerson, Evelyn Waugh in his Library, 1963. Photo available from Bridgeman Images.
It's possible that Evelyn allowed a foundation of make-up to be applied to his boat race. Gerson would have reassured him that this was a common device used in the taking of formal portraits. Waugh may have been vain enough to go along with this.
Actually, Waugh had just been on a cure at a sanatorium in Kent for two weeks. That may explain why he arranged for a photographer to capture his youthful beauty on this his 60th birthday.
The fact that this photo is in colour allows us to see that Evelyn was wearing exactly the same clothes as in the 1959 photo session. The light blue shirt with a white line through it. The brown, houndstooth, three-piece suit, and the maroon and black tie. Maybe that's why so little has been made of the difference between the 1959 and 1963 photo sessions. But by separating out the two occasions - as I'm demonstrating that you can - one is able to tell a story. Two stories. With Evelyn Waugh as the centre-piece to both.
The next shot is the pick of the bunch and was used on the cover of the second volume of Martin Stannard's excellent biography of Waugh, called No Abiding City. 
Mark Gerson, Evelyn Waugh in his Library, 1963. Photo available from Bridgeman Images.
It's possible that Mark Gerson did a little work on this portrait in the darkroom. It may be that the orange-red tones of the carnation are picked up again in the face, though in a much subdued state. 
Mark Gerson, Evelyn Waugh in his Library (detail), 1963.
It's almost as if the carnation is a powder puff and has been used to smooth over any red blemishes on Evelyn's cheek, his nose and his chin. The art of a master craftsman. I think it works. It looks like Evelyn hasn't had a drink of anything stronger than turnip juice for a whole year.
How to celebrate the taking of such a successful portrait photograph, one that so delights the client?
"Will you join me in the quaffing of a bottle of champagne before you take leave of Combe Florey, Mark? To celebrate your carnation initiative, your sphinx photo and my birthday? The spare room will be available if the fizz proves all too much for you."
Soon they are clinking flutes:
Evelyn Waugh: "He rolls through the air with the greatest of ease."
Mark Gerson: "That darling young man on the flying trapeze."
JUNE 5, 2025
Notes
The earlier Mark Gerson photo session at Combe Florey can be experienced here.
The next essay in the Combe Florey section of this site begins with the mention of an editing task that Mark Gerson performed for Evelyn Waugh.
