VO Evelyn Arthur St. John

VO, Evelyn Arthur St. John's (Waugh, Evelyn Arthur St. John) (1903-1966), English writer. Born October 28, 1903 in London, his father - an essayist and publisher Arthur in his eldest brother - novelist, author of numerous travel essays in Alec (1898-1981). After graduating from Oxford University, taught in two private schools. At the same time wrote his first novel "Decline and destruction" (Decline and Fall, 1928). While working on a second novel, "Vile flesh" (Vile Bodies, 1930), converted to Catholicism. In commemoration of his conversion, he later wrote a book, a biography, Edmund Campion, Jesuit and martyr "(Edmund Campion, Jesuit and Martyr, 1935).
In the 1930's many travels to Europe, Africa and Central America. The result of these trips were travel notes "Labels" (Labels, . 1930), . "Distant people" (Remote People, . 1932), . "Ninety-two days" (Ninety Two Days, . 1934), . "In in Abyssinia" (Waugh in Abyssinia, . 1935) and a series of comic novels "Black attack" (Black Mischief, . 1932), . "Handful of dust" (A Handful of Dust, . 1934) and "Sensation" (Scoop, . 1938),
. They wrote about in the abyss that separates civilization and barbarism.

During the second world war he served in the Marine Corps and commando units, was promoted to captain, with a special mission visited Yugoslavia. The war inspired him to create one of the funniest of his novels - "Do not regret flags" (Put Out More Flags, . 1942) and served as the basis of his own Catholic works - the trilogy "The armed men" (Men at Arms, . 1952), . "Officers and Gentlemen" (Officers and Gentlemen, . 1955) and "unconditional surrender" (The End of The Battle, . 1962),
. After the war, wrote in "Unforgettable" (The Loved One, . 1948), . sarcastic, . cemetery grim description of life in Hollywood, . political satire "Modern Europe Scott-King" (Scott-King's Modern Europe, . 1949) and "Testing Gilbert Pinfolda" (The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold, . 1957),
. Among the works, . especially where the author put Catholicism, . - "Return to Braydshed" (Brideshead Revisited, . 1945), . story of the disintegration of the family of Catholic aristocrats,, . "Elena" (Helena, . 1950), . a fictional biography of the mother of Emperor Constantine, . "The Life of Ronald Knox" (The Life of Ronald Knox, . 1959) - a tribute to the writer and priest,
. Shortly before his death completed in the first volume of his autobiography "dropout" (A Little Learning, 1964). He died in his home in Taunton (Somerset County) April 10, 1966.