This biography of Evelyn Waugh, written with the full co-operation of the family and making use of a mass of unpublished letters and diaries, traces the remarkable career of a writer who, though respected, was always controversial and undoubtedly eccentric. In particular, it sheds new light on his difficult relationship with his father, his homosexual affair at Oxford, his unhappy first marriage to Evelyn Gardner, and his years of sexual adventure before his second marriage. Hastings also uncovers his attitude to the Church, his conversion to Roman Catholicism, his disastrous relationship with the military, and his enduring, but difficult, friendships with his three favourite women: Nancy Mitford, Diana Cooper and Ann Fleming.