Evelyn Waugh Lecture Oliver Soden OL

OLs, parents – past and current – and OL Foundationers came together for the 2023 Evelyn Waugh Lecture on 20 April. This was Lancing’s first live lecture since 2019.

Oliver Soden (Teme 2003—2008), broadcaster and writer, talked about his critically acclaimed book Masquerade: The Lives of Noël Coward, the first biography of Noël Coward in almost 30 years.

Oliver writes about art, music and literature and has appeared in multiple newspapers such as The Observer, Times Literary Supplement and The Spectator in which his first book Michael Tippett: The Biography became Book of the Year. He also won the Somerset Maugham Award and the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for storytelling.

This year was a first, where Sixth Form pupils linked musical pieces and drama performances to the Lecture. Theo Almond opened the evening with a wonderful rendering of Coward’s A Room with a View. Before Oliver spoke about his biography, he started by recalling the occasion when he was a Sixth Former and Sir David Hare had given the memorable and inaugural Evelyn Waugh Lecture in 2008. Following on from such august beginnings, Oliver admitted to having to shake off a feeling of ‘imposter syndrome’. The next pupil contribution was delivered by Omar Mubarak Ali and Bea Jordan, who performed a scene from Coward’s ‘horribly funny’ play Private Lives

Masquerade: The Lives of Noël Coward is an exploration of one of the most famous playwrights and entertainers of the 20th Century. Oliver talked about Coward’s time as a child actor, his experiences of the First World War, how this affected his development and made him one of the world’s identifiable playwrights. This was followed by a performance from Poppy Sutcliffe of one of Coward’s most famous songs Mad About The Boy, followed by Twentieth Century Blues performed by Elodie Banham. The final performance was given by Sebastian Darmon, Bradley Harman, and Poppy Sutcliffe, from the 1945 film Brief Encounter based on Noël Coward’s 1936 one-act play Still Life. Throughout the lecture, Oliver interwove the connections between Waugh and Coward (born only four years apart) and gave the audience a fascinating perspective on the historical events that both were experiencing at the same time.

Following the lecture, guests enjoyed a meal in the Dining Hall, preceded by grace given by one of our Heads of School, Upper Sixth pupil Benjamin Irvine-Capel. The evening concluded with a toast to the College by OL Club President Nigel Wheeler (Olds 1963–1968) and book signing by Oliver Soden.

If you missed the lecture, you can still enjoy it along with the performances on our website.