Bron Waugh was the finest journalist of his generation

Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph editor

"He had been unwell for quite a long time, with a bad heart," she said.

"It's hard to sum up someone so wonderful, but I've been hanging round for 40 years so that says something."

The son of Evelyn Waugh, he was a noted satirical columnist at the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, writing on political and social matters, as well as penning a regular chess column.

His newspaper columns were collected into two books, Way of the World Volume I and II.

At the offices of The Literary Review, where he was editor-in-chief, staff were stunned by the news.

One said: "We are too upset to talk about it at the moment."

Charles Moore, editor of The Daily Telegraph, said Waugh was one of the best journalists he had known.

'Original'

He said: "Bron Waugh was the finest journalist of his generation and also the bravest.

"He had a completely original view of life and he laughed in the face of the modern world."

He was born in November 1939 and educated at Christ Church, Oxford.

He joined the Daily Telegraph in 1960 after he was forced to retire from the Royal Horse Guards because of a wound.

He wrote five novels - his first, The Foxglove Saga, in 1960 - countless book reviews and hundreds of columns for periodicals such as the Spectator, Private Eye and the New Statesman.

His recreation in Who's Who is listed as gossip.

In a newspaper interview last November, he accepted his heart condition was serious.

"I don't think I'll survive long. I can feel I'm on my way out," he told journalist Deborah Ross.