A PUB where Evelyn Waugh 'wrote, drank and loved' is set to get special recognition for its role in the author's life.

A blue plaque will be unveiled tonight at the Abingdon Arms in Beckley, attended by Evelyn Waugh's grandson Alexander Waugh.

The prolific writer, best known for his Oxford-based novel Brideshead Revisited, was a frequent visitor to the pub before his death in 1966.

He stayed there as a student with his male lover and later honeymooned at the same location with his first wife, also called Evelyn.

Latterly he used the pub as a writing retreat and it was there where he wrote the novel Vile Bodies.

The plaque being unveiled carries the words: ‘Evelyn Waugh, Author, wrote, drank and loved here 1924-1931.'

July 28 has been chosen for the unveiling because it was on this date in 1924 that Waugh attended a big feast in a barn next to the pub.

He wrote in his diary that 'until about 3 in the morning the whole village sat and ate and drank and danced and sang.'

In recognition of its role of the pub in the writer's life, villagers will hold their own 'big feast' at which diners will enjoy a four-course menu created by the pub's chef.

Co-tenant Aimee Bronock said: “Many people know this as the pub where Lewis Carroll was said to have been inspired to write Alice Through the Looking-Glass by the magnificent view over Otmoor.

"We’re thrilled to be highlighting a more recent literary connection as well.”

The feast is sold out but drinkers can attend the unveiling at 6.30pm.