JET SET GO TO WAUGH

As Brideshead Revisited turns 80, how author Evelyn Waugh took inspiration from the tragic aristocrat of Lytham Hall in creating his own waywardly eccentric Sebastian Flyte in his iconic novel of upper-class foibles

- By David Slattery-Christy

HAVING finished Evelyn Waugh's latest novel Brideshead Revisited in May 1945, the aristocratic Violet Clifton was fuming. And the chatelaine of Lytham Hall in Lancashire felt she had good reason to be: for the novelist had clearly based his main character, the waywardly eccentric Sebastian Flyte, on her own errant son, the current squire of the Clifton Estate, Harry Clifton.

While visiting the 18th-century estate, my ears pricked up when I heard this from a house guide.

As a fan of Waugh, I wanted to investigate it further. And the stories concerning Harry Clifton and his wild eccentricities also made for some intriguing possibilities.

What I discovered was not disappointing - indeed, it has inspired my new novel, Flyte Or Fancy, which reimagines their relationship.

Waugh knew the Cliftons and had indeed described them as "all tearing mad" in a letter to the socialite and arts patron Lady Katharine Asquith, but why?

Harry was born the heir to the estates in 1907 and lived a predictably charmed life.

His family owned most of the land from Lytham St Annes to Blackpool, Lancashire, as well as a Mayfair mansion and a large Scottish estate. They were one of the UK's largest landowning families.

Lytham Hall played host to many grand families including the Tsar of Russia's brother, Grand Duke Michael, a friend of the family, who was hosted for a shoot at the time of Harry's birth.

Harry had a volatile relationship with his father, John Talbot Clifton, which seemed to make him even more rebellious.

He was sent to Downside School near Bath, run by Benedictine Monks, where abuse was normal and sport was the dominant activity. His father hoped it would toughen him up, but Harry was a bookworm and more artistic in temperament, so had a pretty miserable time.