April 19, 2008	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 12, 1429

LONDON: The West Country home where novelist Evelyn Waugh wrote two books during the last 10 years of his life has been put up for sale.

The 14-bedroom property, Combe Florey House, near Taunton in Somerset, is being offered for sale for 2.25 million pounds after his family decided they could no longer afford to keep running it.

Waugh wrote “Unconditional Surrender” and his autobiography “A Little Learning” at the house and entertained a string of authors there including Graham Greene and John Betjeman as well as society beauty Lady Diana Cooper. Waugh bought it 1956 and lavished money on the interior, installing items like a grand chandelier.

“His character and eccentric penchant for grandeur can still be felt all over the house,” his granddaughter Daisy wrote in the Sunday Times. Waugh, whose novels include “Decline and Fall”, “Vile Bodies”, “Brideshead Revisited” and “Scoop”, lived in the house until his death in 1966. His descendents carried on living in the house but have now decided to move somewhere where they can “afford to switch on the heating”, Daisy Waugh added. “It’s time for the Waughs to bow gracefully to the inevitable,” she said.—Reuters