"...while Waugh possessed many vices and failings — snobbery, spite, cruelty, ire, sloth, arrogance, gluttony, boozery, and pigheadedness, to mention only a few — he was no coward."

Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited

By PHILIP EADE

"Eade shines in his examination of the affair and convincingly exonerates Waugh and Laycock of dishonorable conduct. It is clear from this biography and from the others that while Waugh possessed many vices and failings — snobbery, spite, cruelty, ire, sloth, arrogance, gluttony, boozery, and pigheadedness, to mention only a few — he was no coward. Still, as Eade also notes, Waugh clearly felt a “sense of moral unease” over the whole thing, which unreconciled feelings found expression in his depiction of Ivor Claire’s ignoble flight in Officers and Gentlemen."