Daisy Waugh
Encyclopedia
Daisy Louisa Dominica Waugh (born 19 February 1967), known as Daisy Waugh, is an English
journalist
, travel writer
, novel
ist and television presenter.
She has also worked as a restaurant
critic
and as an agony aunt
for The Independent
. On television, she has presented Channel 4
's Travelog show and is also a contributor to BBC Radio 4
.
, by his marriage in 1961 to the novelist and translator Lady Teresa Onslow
, daughter of the 6th Earl of Onslow
. Her elder sister is Margaret Sophia Laura (born 1962), while her brothers are Alexander Evelyn Michael
(born 1963, a writer on music) and Nathaniel Thomas Biafra (born 1968). They are grandchildren of the author
Evelyn Waugh
and great-grandchildren of the publisher and literary critic
Arthur Waugh
, and the four are reported to have remained close.
Through her great-grandfather Aubrey Herbert
, a British diplomat who was twice offered the throne of Albania
, Waugh is descended from the Earls of Carnarvon
and William the Conqueror
.
Waugh grew up from the age of four at Combe Florey House
, in Somerset
, of which she has written: "It's an impressive-looking place: big and quite grand and pleasingly symmetrical, set at the top of a long, winding drive, with an Elizabethan
gatehouse at the bottom and a small lake with a private island halfway up... With forbidden attics and vast cellars chock-a-block with hidden treasures, there was never any need for a nursery... My memories are of a house, underheated (to put it mildly), but always full of noisy cousins and glamorous, clever people, eating well and talking quickly."
At the age of twenty-one she published her first book, What is the Matter with Mary Jane? (1988). She pursued an ambition to become a Hollywood screenwriter
, which turned into a weekly newspaper column from Los Angeles
. Other journalism includes working as a restaurant
critic and as an agony aunt for The Independent
, and travel writing
.
On television, she has presented Channel 4
's Travelog show and was a contributor to the Radio Four programme Afternoon Shift.
A Small Town in Africa (1994), a book about Waugh's experiences while living for six months at Isiolo
in the Eastern Province
of Kenya
, was well received. In 1995, she spent three months travelling in the United States with Samantha Weinberg
.
In 2005, the Literary Review
said of Waugh's new novel Bed of Roses "Cold Comfort Farm
meets Goodbye, Mr Chips
."
From about 2005 to 2007, Waugh lived in the country and wrote an anonymous column for The Sunday Times
called Country/City Mole in Home. This phase came to an end when she gave up the rural idyll and returned to London to write The Desperate Diary of a Country Housewife (2008).
Waugh has now published several novels, as well as works of non-fiction, and continues to write regularly for national newspapers in the UK, including the Daily Telegraph, The Times
, and The Sunday Times
.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, travel writer
Travel literature
Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...
, novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
ist and television presenter.
She has also worked as a restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
and as an agony aunt
Advice column
An advice column is a column in a magazine or newspaper written by an advice columnist . The image presented was originally of an older woman providing comforting advice and maternal wisdom, hence the name "aunt"...
for The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
. On television, she has presented Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's Travelog show and is also a contributor to BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
.
Early life
A member of a literary dynasty, Waugh is the second daughter of the writer and journalist Auberon WaughAuberon Waugh
Auberon Alexander Waugh was a British author and journalist, son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh. He was known to his family and friends as Bron Waugh.-Life and career:...
, by his marriage in 1961 to the novelist and translator Lady Teresa Onslow
Lady Teresa Waugh
Lady Teresa Lorraine Waugh is a British novelist and translator.Lady Teresa was born in 1940, the daughter of the 6th Earl of Onslow and his first wife, Pamela . On 1 July 1961, she married the author, Auberon Waugh...
, daughter of the 6th Earl of Onslow
William Onslow, 6th Earl of Onslow
William Arthur Bampfylde Onslow, 6th Earl of Onslow KBE MC TD, DL was a British peer and officer in the British Army.Onslow was the eldest son of Richard William Alan Onslow, 5th Earl of Onslow and the Hon...
. Her elder sister is Margaret Sophia Laura (born 1962), while her brothers are Alexander Evelyn Michael
Alexander Waugh
Alexander Waugh is an English writer, critic, composer, cartoonist, record producer and television presenter. He is most known for his biography of Paul Wittgenstein published in 2009....
(born 1963, a writer on music) and Nathaniel Thomas Biafra (born 1968). They are grandchildren of the author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
and great-grandchildren of the publisher and literary critic
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
Arthur Waugh
Arthur Waugh
Arthur Waugh was an English author, literary critic, and publisher. He was the father of the writers Alec and Evelyn Waugh.-His life:...
, and the four are reported to have remained close.
Through her great-grandfather Aubrey Herbert
Aubrey Herbert
Aubrey Nigel Henry Molyneux Herbert was a British diplomat, traveller and intelligence officer associated with Albanian independence. Twice he was offered the throne of Albania...
, a British diplomat who was twice offered the throne of Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, Waugh is descended from the Earls of Carnarvon
Earl of Carnarvon
Earl of Carnarvon is a title that has been created three times in British history. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1628 in favour of Robert Dormer, 2nd Baron Dormer. For more information on this creation, which became extinct in 1709, see the Baron Dormer.The title was created...
and William the Conqueror
William I of England
William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...
.
Waugh grew up from the age of four at Combe Florey House
Combe Florey
Combe Florey is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated north west of Taunton in the Taunton Deane district, on the West Somerset Railway. The village has a population of 252...
, in Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, of which she has written: "It's an impressive-looking place: big and quite grand and pleasingly symmetrical, set at the top of a long, winding drive, with an Elizabethan
Elizabethan era
The Elizabethan era was the epoch in English history of Queen Elizabeth I's reign . Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history...
gatehouse at the bottom and a small lake with a private island halfway up... With forbidden attics and vast cellars chock-a-block with hidden treasures, there was never any need for a nursery... My memories are of a house, underheated (to put it mildly), but always full of noisy cousins and glamorous, clever people, eating well and talking quickly."
Career
After school, instead of going to university Waugh took a job in a residential home for old people near Fulham Broadway.At the age of twenty-one she published her first book, What is the Matter with Mary Jane? (1988). She pursued an ambition to become a Hollywood screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, which turned into a weekly newspaper column from Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Other journalism includes working as a restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
critic and as an agony aunt for The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, and travel writing
Travel literature
Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...
.
On television, she has presented Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's Travelog show and was a contributor to the Radio Four programme Afternoon Shift.
A Small Town in Africa (1994), a book about Waugh's experiences while living for six months at Isiolo
Isiolo
Isiolo is a town in the Eastern Province, Kenya. It is situated in the Upper Eastern sub-region, and lies 285 kilometres north of Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. The town grew around the local military camps, much of the population being descended from former Somali soldiers who had fought in...
in the Eastern Province
Eastern Province (Kenya)
The Eastern Province of Kenya is one of seven regions of the country. Its northern boundary is with Ethiopia; the North Eastern Province and Coast Province lie to the east and south; and the remainder of Kenya's provinces, including Central Province, run along its western border. The provincial...
of Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, was well received. In 1995, she spent three months travelling in the United States with Samantha Weinberg
Samantha Weinberg
Samantha Fletcher is a British Green politician, and under her maiden name of Samantha Weinberg, a novelist, journalist and travel writer. Educated at St Paul's Girls' School and Trinity College, Cambridge, she is the author of books such as A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth and...
.
In 2005, the Literary Review
Literary Review
Literary Review is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at Edinburgh University. Its offices are currently on Lexington Street in Soho, London, and it has a circulation of 44,750. Britain's principal literary monthly, the magazine was...
said of Waugh's new novel Bed of Roses "Cold Comfort Farm
Cold Comfort Farm
Cold Comfort Farm is a comic novel by Stella Gibbons, published in 1932. It parodies the romanticised, sometimes doom-laden accounts of rural life popular at the time, by writers such as Mary Webb...
meets Goodbye, Mr Chips
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a novel by James Hilton, published in the United States in June 1934 by Little, Brown and Company and in the United Kingdom in October of that same year by Hodder & Stoughton...
."
From about 2005 to 2007, Waugh lived in the country and wrote an anonymous column for The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
called Country/City Mole in Home. This phase came to an end when she gave up the rural idyll and returned to London to write The Desperate Diary of a Country Housewife (2008).
Waugh has now published several novels, as well as works of non-fiction, and continues to write regularly for national newspapers in the UK, including the Daily Telegraph, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, and The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
.
Family
Waugh married Peter de Sales la Terrière in 1995. Their first child, Panda Sarah, was born on 22 September 1997, and a son called Zebedee three years later. Now there is Bashe as well. She now lives in London, with her husband and three children.Books
- What is the Matter with Mary Jane? A Cautionary Tale (London, 1988)
- A Small Town in Africa (London: Heinemann, 1994)
- The New You Survival Kit: An Essential Guide to Etiquette, Rites and Customs among the Modern Elite (London: HarperCollins, 2002)
- Ten Steps to Happiness (In a Safe and Healthy World) (London: HarperCollins, 2003, ISBN 0007119054)
- Bed of Roses (2005)
- Bordeaux Housewives (London: Harper, 2006)
- The Desperate Diary of a Country Housewife (London: HarperCollins, 2008, ISBN 9780007265237)
- Last Dance with Valentino (London: HarperCollins, 2011 ISBN 0007275730)
External links
- Daisy Waugh at journalisted.com
- Daisy Waugh at standpointmag.co.uk