Discover the Best Books Written by Auberon Waugh

Auberon Alexander Waugh (17 November 1939 – 16 January 2001) was an English journalist and novelist and the eldest son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh. He was widely known by his nickname, "Bron." After a traditional classical education at Downside School, he was commissioned into the army during National Service, where he was badly injured in a shooting accident. He went on to study for a year at Oxford University.

At twenty, he launched his journalism career at the Telegraph Group. Also, he wrote for many other publications, including Private Eye, in which he presented a profile that was half Tory grandee and half cheeky rebel. As a young man, Waugh wrote five well-received novels but gave up fiction for fear of unfavorable comparisons with his father. He and his wife, Lady Teresa, had four children and lived at Combe Florey House in Somerset.

He was born at Pixton Park, near Dulverton in Somerset, his mother's ancestral home. He was the eldest son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh, grandson of the author and publisher Arthur Waugh, and nephew of Alec Waugh. His mother was Laura Herbert, his father's second wife, a daughter of Colonel Aubrey Herbert (1880–1923) of Pixton, diplomat and traveler, a younger son of Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon, of Highclere Castle in Hampshire, a leading member of the Conservative Party, by his second wife Elizabeth Howard, a great-niece of Bernard Howard, 12th Duke of Norfolk, and a sister of Esme Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Penrith, ambassador to the United States. 

Laura's half-uncle was George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, the famous Egyptologist who sponsored Howard Carter, who discovered King Tutankhamun's tomb, and her mother was Hon. Mary Gertrude Vesey, only child and sole heiress of John Vesey, 4th Viscount de Vesci (1844–1903).

He was named after Auberon Herbert (1922–1974), his mother's brother, a landowner and advocate of Eastern European causes after World War II, himself named after Auberon Herbert (1838–1906), a son of the 3rd Earl of Carnarvon. His nickname used by friends and family was "Bron."

Born just as World War II broke out, Waugh hardly saw his father until he was five. His parents were Roman Catholics (his mother by birth and his father by conversion); he was educated at the Benedictine Downside School in Somerset and passed his Greek and Latin A-level exams at the early age of fifteen. He went on to begin a philosophy, politics, and economics degree at Christ Church, Oxford, where he held an exhibition in English. He was rusticated by the academic authorities and never returned to the university, preferring to make an early start in journalism.

During his National Service, he was commissioned into the Royal Horse Guards and served in Cyprus, where he was almost killed in a machine gun accident. Annoyed by a fault in the machine gun on his armored car, which he drove frequently, he seized the end of the barrel and shook it, accidentally triggering the mechanism so that the gun fired several bullets through his chest. 

As a result of his injuries, he lost his spleen, one lung, several ribs, and a finger and suffered from pain and recurring infections for the rest of his life. While lying on the ground waiting for an ambulance, his platoon sergeant kept him alive, providing vital first aid. He was first treated for his injuries at Nicosia General Hospital. While recuperating from the accident in Italy, he began his first novel, The Foxglove Saga.