Evelyn Waugh Lecture & Dinner

This occasion was set up in 2008 as a means of thanking all members of the Lancing Foundation and the 1848 Society for their loyalty and generosity to the College. Sir David Hare was the guest speaker in the inaugural year; he spoke movingly about his schooldays at Lancing and the inspiration he received from a number of masters which ultimately led to his successful career today.

Alexander Waugh, grandson of Evelyn Waugh, spoke in the second year about both his grandfather’s time at Lancing and his great works. Alexander dispelled many of the myths surrounding his grandfather’s schooldays and consequent relationship with Lancing. He opened the lecture with the news that he had just signed a contract with Oxford University Press to re-publish all forty-seven works of his grandfather. Alexander will be the editor of the project and expects it to take sixteen years to complete.

The 2011 Lecture was held on 21 March to coincide with the celebrations to mark the Bicentenary of our founder’s birthday. Christopher Hampton CBE, OL, was the guest speaker; Christopher is a playwright, screen writer and film director. He is best known for his play based on the novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses and the film version Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and also more recently for writing the nominated screenplay for the film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s Atonement. His eagerly anticipated film ‘A Dangerous Method’, for which he wrote the screenplay, basing it on his own play ‘The Talking Cure’, is about the turbulent relationship between Carl Jung and his mentor Sigmund Freud and will be released later this year. Christopher spoke about the similarities between his life and that of Evelyn Waugh, and about how apparently disastrous events can have a very positive and happy outcome.

At drinks held before the 2011 Foundation Dinner, in the Sanderson Room, a bronze bust of Evelyn Waugh was unveiled by its creator, Evelyn Waugh’s grandson Tom Waugh. This will remain in the Sanderson Room which is the old library, where Waugh spent a great deal of his time as librarian.

At the 2012 Lecture the Reverend Professor Richard Griffiths (Teme 1948 – 1953) gave a fascinating talk on Waugh’s Lancing diaries and the lessons that can be learned from them in relation to his other written works. It inspired many members of the audience to re-read the most well-known novels.

The 2013 lecture was a very special occasion; Derek Granger, producer of the iconic serialisation of Waugh’s most successful novel, Brideshead Revisited, described the filming of the book. He was introduced by Anthony Andrews, the actor who made his name as Sebastian Flyte in the series.

Sir Peter Bazalgette, Chair of Arts Council England and President of the Royal Television Society, was the guest speaker in 2014. His entertaining and informative talk delighted the audience of pupils, parents, staff and invited guests and led to a lively question and answer session.

The College welcomed Charles Moore in 2015. Mr Moore is the former editor of the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and the Spectator, and latterly Margaret Thatcher’s official biographer. In a fascinating talk Mr Moore talked about the challenges of writing a biography of the most iconic political leader since Churchill.

Selina Hastings, journalist, author and biographer of Evelyn Waugh was the guest speaker at the 2016 Lecture. Selina’s subject for her talk was the literary and epistolary relationship between Waugh and his lifetime friend, Nancy Mitford. Over 150 guest from the Lancing family attended the special occasion, 100 years on from when Waugh first came to Lancing and 50 years since his death on Easter Day in 1966.

The 2017 Lecture was given by Sir Alan Moses, Chairman of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) and a former Lord Justice of Appeal. Sir Alan joked at the beginning of his talk that it should be all too obvious that he would focus on Waugh’s Scoop. Published in 1938, it was his personal revenge on journalists, concealing his envy of their success and his own failure when sent to Abyssinia by the Daily Mail.

Our speaker in 2018 was lyricist, radio broadcaster and author Sir Tim Rice (Second’s 1958-1962). In 2019 we welcomed the author William Boyd, whose encyclopedic knowledge delighted the audience with Evelyn Waugh – An A to Z . Jeremy Tomlinson, Steward and Honorary Secretary of Lancing Chapel, Fellow of Lancing College, Common Room 1971-2012, fittingly ushered in the new decade in 2021 with a reflection on Waugh’s Lancing days in Evelyn Waugh: A Housemaster’s Report. In 2023 writer and broadcaster Oliver Soden (Teme 2003-2008) took to the podium to share his new biography of Noel Coward, Masquerade, accompanied by pupils performing excerpts from Coward’s work.

For our 2024 Lecture, we were honoured to welcome Sir Gregory Doran, the Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at the University of Oxford, and former Artistic Director of the RSC. His wonderfully engaging lecture took the audience behind the scenes of his challenges and successes of staging Shakespeare’s most famous plays. He also read vignettes from his new book, My Shakespeare: A Director’s Journey through the First Folio, which included stories from his 2009 TV production of Hamlet with David Tennant and Anthony and Cleopatra at The Swan with Patrick Stewart and Harriet Walker in 2006.