Alexander Waugh | |
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| Born | Alexander Evelyn Michael Waugh (1963-12-30)30 December 1963 London, England |
| Died | 22 July 2024(2024-07-22) (aged 60) Milverton, Somerset, England |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Alma mater | University of Manchester |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
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Alexander Evelyn Michael Waugh (30 December 1963 – 22 July 2024) was an English writer, critic, and journalist. Among other books, he wroteFathers and Sons: The Autobiography of a Family (2004), about five generations of his own family, andThe House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War (2008) about theWittgenstein family. He was an advocate of theOxfordian theory, which holds thatEdward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford was the real author of the works ofWilliam Shakespeare.
Born inBelgravia, London on 30 December 1963, Alexander was the eldest son ofAuberon andLady Teresa Waugh, and the brother ofDaisy Waugh and the grandson ofEvelyn Waugh.[1][2][3] He was educated atTaunton School and theUniversity of Manchester.[2]
Waugh was the opera critic ofThe Mail on Sunday and then theEvening Standard in the 1990s.[3] His books on music includeClassical Music: A New Way of Listening (1995)[4] andOpera: A New Way of Listening (1996).[5]
Waugh's biographyFathers and Sons: The Autobiography of a Family (2004),[6] written at the suggestion of SirVidia Naipaul after his father died, is a portrait of the male relations across five generations in his own family.[7][8] Described as "breezily irreverent" byJohn Banville inThe New York Review of Books,[9] it formed the basis of aBBC Four television documentary, presented by the author, which was broadcast in 2006.[10] He was the general editor ofThe Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh (43 volumes planned), a project which began in 2009 with the first four volumes appearing in 2017 published by theOxford University Press.[11]
Waugh's biography of theWittgenstein family (The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War[12]) was published in 2008.Terry Eagleton in a review forThe Guardian found it an "eminently readable, meticulously researched account of the Wittgenstein madhouse". Although he thought Waugh wrote less aboutLudwig Wittgenstein than he would desire, he "certainly casts some light" on the philosopher's "extraordinary contradictions."[13] PhilosopherRay Monk in his review forStandpoint magazine commented that Waugh, in his account of a substantial portion of the Wittgenstein family fortune ending up with the Nazis, uses "much hitherto unknown documentation" and "Waugh's version is more authoritative and fuller than previous accounts" and he wrote that concert pianistPaul Wittgenstein holds the largest share of the text and much of the book is written from his viewpoint.[14]
His other books includeTime: From Microseconds to Millennia; A Search for the Right Time (1999)[15] andGod (2002).[16][17][18] InEvelyn Waugh: Fictions, Faith and Family, Michael G. Brennan describedTime as being "one of the most intriguing books produced by" any of his later family. "Ranging through religious, classical and renaissance scholarship, it blends past beliefs and theories, often in gently subversive ways, with more recent scientific thought."[19]
Waugh was an advocate of theOxfordian theory, which contends thatEdward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the works ofWilliam Shakespeare. He discovered what he claimed to be surreptitious allusions embedded in 16th- and 17th-century works revealing that the name William Shakespeare was a pseudonym used by Oxford to write the Shakespeare oeuvre.[20][21] Of one example which gained coverage in October 2013, Shakespearean scholar ProfessorStanley Wells toldThe Sunday Times: "I'm mystified that an intelligent person like Alexander Waugh can see any significance in this kind of juggling with letters."[20][22]
Waugh's book,Shakespeare in Court (2014) takes the form of a fictional trial which draws the conclusion that Shakespeare was a front for others but, on this occasion, does not propose another candidate.[23]
He was elected chairman of theDe Vere Society in spring 2016 for a three-year term.[24]
In late October 2017,The Guardian reported that Waugh believed the title and dedication of theWilliam Aspley edition ofShakespeare's sonnets of 1609 hold encrypted evidence of the final resting place of the author: de Vere's grave inWestminster Abbey'sPoets' Corner.[25]
Waugh met his wife, Eliza Chancellor, while they were both students atManchester University.[26] Eliza is the daughter of the journalistAlexander Chancellor.[27] The couple married in 1990 and had three children.[3][26]
Waugh was diagnosed withprostate cancer in 2023. He died at his home inMilverton, Somerset, on 22 July 2024, at the age of 60.[1][2][3]
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An entertaining debater, with a hatred of pomposity, he proved a doughty opponent of Stratfordian scholars and led the De Vere Society.
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