Was Evelyn Waugh in danger of being shot by his men?

Abstract

[Extract] I am very conscious that many Waughians, perhaps the majority, believe that Colonel Robert (Bob) Laycock had to place a guard over Evelyn Waugh's sleeping quarters to prevent his men shooting him; and that, if he went into action, he was liable to be murdered. But both beliefs are entirely baseless. In response to my essay "I am Trimmer, you know" (see EWNS 41.2), Michael Barber, author of Anthony Powell: A Life, cites Noel Annan as an "authority" on this matter, but Noel Annan is an extremely intelligent critic who places Waugh's oeuvre within a meaningful twentieth-century context; he has no independent knowledge of the detail of Waugh's life. On the matter under review, he merely quotes Christopher Sykes.[1] And as the evidence presented below will demonstrate, Sykes is a most unreliable guide.