WAUGH (EVELYN)

Series of seven autograph letters and cards, variously signed or unsigned, to his friend, BBC producer and future biographer Christopher Sykes, comprising four letters and three letter-cards, one signed “E. Waugh”, another “E. Waugh (late Pinfold)”, others subscribed with a variety of facetious soubriquets, addressing Sykes likewise, the principal topic being Waugh’s celebrated tribute to P.G. Wodehouse that Sykes produced for the BBC (“…the B.B.C. are not ready to talk about terms… As I may die any moment, this confusion should be made clear…”), and thanking him for his support throughout (“…The honour of Wodehouse steeled me for the ordeal but without your support I should have quailed & fled… Your strong arms held me spiritually. I will tell Margaret to engage the 40 Martyrs on behalf of your soul…”); one letter asking if he can come to stay (“…My intent is to come to London. I need a companion there. I will fill you with delicate meats and rare wines, I will laugh uproariously at all your jokes, I will flatter you black & blue, I will be compliant to your taste in entertainment (buggery excepted) if you will stay at your London house during these terrible days…”); other subjects touched upon including Kathleen Hale and the Marmalade Cat, the laxity of morals in the Charteris family, A.J. Balfour’s adultery, Sykes’s “ghastly” cocktail party, Harold Acton’s “high state” at La Pietra, and his autobiography (“…I am engaged in writing a history of myself – a subject which does not greatly interest me…”); one letter in French (about rates of pay at BBC “Boismaison”); the cards bearing the printed heading ‘From Mr. E. Waugh, Combe Florey House, Nr. Taunton’, the letters the Combe Florey address in bold, 7 pages, the cards creased, annotated in pencil by Sykes, 4to and oblong 8vo, Combe Florey House, 1961-63 where dated