# Simon Balcairn — Vile Bodies character guide

> Simon Balcairn in Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Balcairn, Lord Balcairn

**First appearance:** 0004-ii

## Snapshot

A gossip columnist whose trade in other people's scandals makes him the most hated man at every party he is paid to attend.

## Who they are

Balcairn runs the social diary that the Bright Young Things both dread and devour, feeding his readers half-lies and half-libels gleaned from paid informants. When a single suppressed paragraph earns him the enmity of a general and the doors of Mayfair close against him, his professional currency evaporates overnight. His public horsewhipping in the office becomes, for Adam and Nina, a delicious anecdote — which is precisely the fate his column always dealt to others.

## Relationships

### [Adam Fenwick-Symes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vile_bodies_se/characters/adam_fenwick_symes)

_rivalry_

Simon Balcairn is a gossip columnist and rival journalist who competes with Adam for scoops and social access, often with malicious intent.

### [Margot Metroland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vile_bodies_se/characters/margot_metroland)

_professional_

Margot Metroland uses Simon Balcairn as a gossip columnist to spread social news and manipulate public perception, but she holds him in contempt.

### [Adam Fenwick-Symes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vile_bodies_se/characters/adam_fenwick_symes)

_rivalry_

Simon Balcairn is a gossip columnist and rival journalist who competes with Adam for scoops and social access, often with malicious intent.

### [Margot Metroland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vile_bodies_se/characters/margot_metroland)

_professional_

Margot Metroland uses Simon Balcairn as a gossip columnist to spread social news and manipulate public perception, but she holds him in contempt.

### [Adam Fenwick-Symes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vile_bodies_se/characters/adam_fenwick_symes)

_rivalry_

Simon Balcairn is a gossip columnist and rival journalist who competes with Adam for scoops and social access, often with malicious intent.

## In the story

### [Vile Bodies](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vile_bodies_se/chapters/vile-bodies)

Commits suicide after being humiliated, highlighting the theme of death as spectacle.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vile_bodies_se/chapters/iv)

Gossip writer at the party; telephones his story and discusses column material with Vanburgh.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vile_bodies_se/characters/simon_balcairn
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vile_bodies_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vile_bodies_se/characters