I'll transcribe what it says on the back of the Ladybird:
'In this seminal work, a young Evelyn Waugh has a great deal to drink at Oxford and frolics in the English countryside with Alastair Graham.'
I suppose that's a fair overview of Waugh's formative years.
What next?
The blurb reads: 'With remarkable insight, our literary lion writes about social butterflies and champagne picnics in the grounds of Brideshead Castle and tails a swallow on its long migration, first to Africa and then to South America.'
I suppose what were have here is spoof biography in four slim volumes. There may be some point to it, or at least some amusement, so let's carry on to book three.
'Evelyn drinking quietly by himself in the Gloucestershire countryside and getting noisily pissed with his old pals in London.'
That's intended to be a summary of the Piers Court years, I suspect. But does it do them justice? I suggest you dip into the appropriate section of this site.
And the Combe Florey years?
'Evelyn walking into a frozen pond of his own making, with his ear trumpet in one hand and a bottle of gin under his topper.'
Gosh, what a life! A life so at one with nature.