Simon Heffer

The End of the Affair

The Life of Graham Greene, Volume III: 1955-1991

By

Jonathan Cape 706pp £25 order from our bookshop

This is the third, and last, volume of Norman Sherry’s authorised life of a man reputed to have been England’s finest novelist of the twentieth century. The first volume appeared in 1989; the second in 1994. The similarities of tone and approach between this long-awaited conclusion and its forerunners are as striking as the differences. Sherry is still thorough and perceptive, and has a deep rapport with his subject. He is also frequently emotional, censorious (notably over Greene’s admittedly often absurd political posturing) and solipsistic, sometimes to the point of indiscipline. Yet this volume completes one of the great modern works of literary biography, a life to compete, in its way, with George Painter’s breath-taking work on Marcel Proust, or Michael Holroyd’s Bernard Shaw.

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • 'It would be nice to think that women will achieve equal pay in my lifetime, rather than to watch gloomily as stati… ,
    • In 1660, two of the signatories of King Charles I's death warrant fled across the Atlantic to New England. But were… ,
    • Howard Jacobson's sixteenth novel is 'a love story of sorts, one characterised not by physical desire or even conta… ,
    • 'The sudden immersion in the new and unfamiliar can lead people to write with a rare lack of self-consciousness' P… ,
    • 'Pools bend the rules. Clothes slip off, skin glistens, consciousness heightens. A dreamlike scenario unfolds' Jam… ,
    • 'Although he surely didn’t know W H Auden’s theory that every high C proclaims human freedom and our capacity to tr… ,
    • RT : With beginning tomorrow, we've uncovered a 1997 article from the archive reviewing 'Golf Dream… ,
    Follow Us