Daisy Waugh

Daisy Louisa Dominica Waugh (born 19 February 1967),^[1] known as Daisy Waugh, is a novelist, journalist and tarot reader.

Early life

Waugh grew up from the age of four at Combe Florey House, in Somerset, England. She is the daughter of novelist Teresa Waugh and author and journalist Auberon Waugh and the granddaughter of author Evelyn Waugh.

Career

At the age of twenty-one, Waugh published her first novel, 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. She has written property columns and lifestyle columns in the Sunday Times, and was a columnist at Standpoint magazine.

A Small Town in Africa (1994), a book about Waugh's experiences while living and working in Isiolo in the Eastern Province of Kenya, was well received.

In 2005, the Literary Review described Waugh's novel Bed of Roses as "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).

From 2007 until 2012, she was writing weekly columns for the Sunday Times and monthly columns for Standpoint Magazine as well as writing novels and non fiction. Her last three novels were set in early 20th century America - the last of which, Honeyville (2013) was described in the Times as, "intelligent historical fiction at its best". In 2013, she also published a provocative book about modern motherhood. "I Don't Know Why She Bothers - Guilt Free Motherhood for Thoroughly Modern Women" (published in America under the title, The Kids Will Be Fine) was generally very well received. The Observer wrote, "Waugh is refreshingly frank, swears like a sailor and debunks the sanctification of motherhood with relish....This is probably one of the funniest parenting guides you'll find."

Under the name E.V Harte, she is now working on the second in a new series of London-based comic detective novels about a Tarot reading sleuth named Dolly Greene. The first in the series, The Prime of Ms Dolly Greene, will be published by Constable in September 2017.

Family

Waugh married Peter de Sales la Terrière in 1995. 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 0-00-711905-4)

Bed of Roses (2005)

Bordeaux Housewives (London: Harper, 2006)

The Desperate Diary of a Country Housewife (London: HarperCollins, 2008, ISBN 978-0-00-726523-7)

Last Dance with Valentino (London: HarperCollins, 2011 ISBN 0-00-727573-0)

Melting the Snow on Hester Street (London: HarperCollins 2012)

Honeyville (London: HarperCollins 2013)

I Don't Know Why She Bothers Guilt-Free Motherhood for Thoroughly Modern Women (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2013)

References