New festival could put rivals on Waugh-path!
Designed in the 18th century for the 3rd earl of Carlisle, the magnificent Castle Howard in Yorkshire is one of our grandest country houses and lured in more than a quarter of a million visitors last year.
But the battle between the stately homes of england is only about to intensify.
For this June, the baroque masterpiece will host its first ever literary festival, based on its connection to evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, which was filmed there in the 1980s.
it thereby steals a march on Althorp, earl spencer’s pile in northamptonshire, and Cliveden, once the country seat of the 3rd Viscount Astor but now owned by property developer ian Livingstone, which hold their own literary festivals later in the year.
‘i’d like to do a permanent literary festival here,’ Castle Howard’s chatelaine, Vicky Howard, former boss of publisher HarperCollins, tells me, emphasising that this year’s is currently a ‘one-off’.
Vicky assures me there is no chance that she and nick will trouser the takings from their Brideshead jamboree.
‘All the proceeds from the festival are going to the restoration of the house,’ she explains. ‘There are endless things that need repairing.’
Fans of literary drama will certainly be intrigued by the family’s recent, scarring legal battle that saw Vicky’s husband nick Howard force his younger brother simon and family to leave the property.
simon ran the 10,000-acre estate for 30 years after his elder sibling turned down that role to pursue his ambition of becoming a rock star. That dream was never fulfilled and nick became a photographer based in London.
However, in recent years simon was diagnosed with throat cancer, and the prodigal nick — a direct descendant of the 3rd earl — controversially served the eviction order on his brother shortly before Christmas 2015.
simon and his wife and two daughters moved out in June 2016. A family friend told a newspaper at the time: ‘This makes Cain and Abel look like a fairy tale.’ An insider tells me: ‘A real page-turner would be the inside story of the brothers’ feud . . .’