ENDNOTE
Long, long after having written the essays that make up 'The Evelyns' I received the following email:
Mr. McLaren -
The following paragraph appears in a letter dated from the Hotel Buckingham in Nice on 23 January 1930 :
"By the way, have you read Evelyn Waugh's new book 'Vile Bodies'? Its [sic] the most tremendous fun & all the people one really dislikes are properly castigated. Very snigger-making."
Vile Bodies had been formally published just four days earlier, on January 19. The letter was written by a youth of 20 named John Vesey Beanes; for some time, he had been resisting his parents' demands that he stop idling on the Riviera and come home. His correspondent was Maisie Saunders, the wife of Captain W.E.P. Saunders (late of the Indian Army), a woman in her early 30s. She had five thousand a year; the Captain had nothing. Maisie and the Captain frequented the Embassy Club, the Kit-Cat Club, the Ambassador Club and the River Club in Maidenhead. Perhaps Beanes met them at one of these venues. The Saunders evidently knew Patrick Balfour and claimed to know the Prince of Wales -- not, perhaps, a remarkable distinction. (in later life, Maisie bragged about having received confidences from Arthur Maundy Gregory.)
Beanes eventually came home, attended RADA and wrote plays, one of which, called Repayment, was staged for two nights in 1936 at the experimental Arts Theatre in Westminster; the cast included Margaret Lockwood and Marius Goring.
At the end of 1930, the Saunders set out on a leisurely trip around the world. They returned to their point of departure in 1935 and subsequently became tax exiles in Switzerland.
I enjoy your Waugh pages.
Regards,
Alexander Scala
It seemed to me that this communication summed up an aspect of the almost forgotten era under discussion. My reply is perhaps less interesting but I include it in the hope that it will prompt the reader's own thoughts:
Dear Alexander (if I may),
Thanks for your letter. It is evocative and makes me think how good a work could be that followed one, or several, English families through the twenties and thirties (possibly though the 40s, 50, and 60s too) marking out their progress against the rise and fall of Evelyn Waugh. (Letters between parties mentioning Waugh’s books. Dedications written into first editions, and so on.)
Last year I was sent details of a photo album kept by Pat Grinling who was a pupil at Aston Clinton School while EW was a teacher there. That sort of thing is what I mean (see towards the end of my Waugh website). The inclusion of Waugh’s wit and life story, plus the plots of his books, might make other people’s stories more relatable and his own less singular. For example, the Saunders leisurely trip around the world could be counterpointed by EW’s vivid trips on the Stella Polaris, to Ethiopia and the Amazon Jungle. And when Waugh was back in England writing up his trips as books, how was John Vesey Beanes getting on, perhaps under the influence of Evelyn Waugh’s novels?
Soon I will take the opportunity of re-reading the entire 'The Evelyns' section. It's ten years since I researched and wrote that, and I remember getting so much satisfaction uncovering new layers to an already well-known story.
Best wishes,
Duncan
