Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Graham Greene
-
Standard Name: Greene, Graham
Birth Name: Henry Graham Greene
An English novelist of exceptional energy, Graham Greene
built a career spanning a dozen genres—most notably more than twenty novels or thrillers, as well as short stories, film reviews, travel books, plays, screenplays, and autobiography. Many of his novels wrestle with issues of belief. His personal correspondence included thousands of letters, and for much of his life he reported as a spy to the British Secret Intelligence Service
. His restlessness drew him to dangerous places, adulterous relationships, self-harm, and a belief, infusing his pages, that a focus on squalor makes for an honest portrayal of the world.
In 1946 Graham Greene
, who worked for the publisher Eyre and Spottiswoode
, tried to arrange for his employers to reissue the seven-year-old A Family and a Fortune as well as ICB
's three...
Publishing
Josephine Tey
The first publication by Gordon Daviot (wrongly spelled as Davitt) was a poem in the Weekly Westminster (latest title of the Westminster Gazette), in an issue which also included work by Graham Greene
.
Henderson, Jennifer Morag. Josephine Tey, a life. Sandstone Press.
100-1
Author summary
Hilary Mantel
The author of twelve novels (ranging from political thrillers through social satire, comedy of manners, and near-gothic), still at the height of her career, HM
has been likened to Muriel Spark
or Edna O'Brien
for...
Greene, Graham. Graham Greene. A Life in Letters. Editor Greene, Richard, Alfred A. Knopf.
147
Performance of text
Bryony Lavery
BL
's dramatic adaptation of Graham Greene
's novel Brighton Rock was her latest work to open at the Theatre Royal, York (coinciding with a revival of her Frozen). It then went on tour.
Billington, Michael. “A Criminal Coldness”. Country Life, pp. 94-5.
94
Occupation
Naomi Royde-Smith
She covered drama criticism for two years, but remained literary editor for a decade.
Eliot, T. S. The Letters of T.S. Eliot. Editor Eliot, Valerie, Faber and Faber.
1: 149n1
Mary Agnes Hamilton
wrote later: she was a wonderful editor, whose discoveries were endless.
Hamilton, Mary Agnes. Remembering My Good Friends. Jonathan Cape.
137
Her list of...
Material Conditions of Writing
Muriel Spark
MS
began her career as a novelist in illness and under financial stress. In 1954, Macmillan
, who were looking for promising new writers, invited her to write a novel. Although ill and unable to...
Literary responses
Patricia Highsmith
Graham Greene
's foreword observes that this story is hard to beat for pure physical horror, an effect rare in PH
's work.
Wilson, Andrew Norman. Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith. Bloomsbury.
267
Literary responses
Pat Barker
Reviewer Lara Feigel
found that PB
's allusions to actual, historical people (Paul sharing sentiments, his place of work, the circumstances of his falling in love, with Graham Greene
; Elinor owing something to Elizabeth Bowen
Literary responses
Patricia Highsmith
She has been better appreciated in Britain than her native USA, and perhaps better in Europe than in Britain. Frank Richards
wrote that she made a life's work of her ostracisation from the American...
Literary responses
Elizabeth Jane Howard
Arthur Koestler
described this, before publication, as a cross between Nancy Mitford
and Evelyn Waugh
. When EJH
told him she was having trouble finishing it, he said she had finished it, and written beyond...
Literary responses
Muriel Spark
This novel was chosen a Book Society
recommendation (of which between six and ten were selected per month); it was not the choice of the month, since the panel felt it was too morbid—deeply...
Literary responses
Muriel Spark
Graham Greene
wrote to tell Spark that this was her best book since Memento Mori (as he was to do with several later titles as well).
Greene, Graham. Graham Greene. A Life in Letters. Editor Greene, Richard, Alfred A. Knopf.
309-10
Reviews were mixed, many sounding baffled. While admirers...
