Editing Evelyn Waugh (section)

=== Second marriage ===

On his conversion, Waugh had accepted that he would be unable to remarry while Evelyn Gardner was alive. However, he wanted a wife and children, and in October 1933, he began proceedings for the [[Annulment (Catholic Church)|annulment]] of the marriage on the grounds of "lack of real consent". The case was heard by an [[Ecclesiastical court|ecclesiastical tribunal]] in London, but a delay in the submission of the papers to Rome meant that the annulment was not granted until 4 July 1936.<ref>Hastings, pp. 290–293</ref> In the meantime, following their initial encounter in Portofino, Waugh had fallen in love with Laura Herbert.<ref>Byrne, pp. 240–241</ref> He proposed marriage, by letter, in spring 1936.<ref>Amory (ed.), pp. 103–105</ref> There were initial misgivings from the [[Herbert family|Herberts]], an aristocratic Catholic family; as a further complication, Laura Herbert was a cousin of Evelyn Gardner.<ref name= StannardODNB/> Despite some family hostility the marriage took place on 17 April 1937 at the [[Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory|Church of the Assumption]] in Warwick Street, London.<ref>Byrne, pp. 260–261</ref>

As a wedding present the bride's grandmother bought the couple [[Piers Court]], a country house near [[Stinchcombe]] in Gloucestershire.<ref>Hastings, pp. 358–359</ref> The couple had seven children, one of whom died in infancy. Their first child, a daughter, Maria Teresa, was born on 9 March 1938 and a son, [[Auberon Waugh|Auberon Alexander]], on 17 November 1939.<ref>Hastings, pp. 336, 392</ref> Between these events, ''Scoop'' was published in May 1938 to wide critical acclaim.<ref>Stannard, Vol. I pp. 470–471</ref> In August 1938 Waugh, with Laura, made a three-month trip to Mexico after which he wrote ''[[Robbery Under Law]]'', based on his experiences there. In the book he spelled out clearly his conservative credo; he later described the book as dealing "little with travel and much with political questions".<ref>Sykes, p. 184</ref>