About Me
My name is Henry Graham Greene and I was born on October 2, 1904 in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. I was a shy and sensitive youth and was often truant from school. The recurring themes of treachery and betrayal in my writing stem from my troubled school years where I was often tormented for being the headmaster's son. After several suicide attempts, I left school one day and wrote to my parents that I did not wish to return. This culminated in my being sent to a therapist in London at age fifteen.I spent my university years drunk and debt-ridden, but it was here that I developed an interest in politics after joining the Communist Party (more for amusement than for for principle); and honed my writing skills.Besides reviewing books, I also reviewed films for The Spectator, and became involved in screenwriting despite being sued by Twentieth Century-Fox for my criticism of Shirley Temple. I wrote adaptations for the cinema as well as original screenplays, the most famous being The Third Man.I began my world-renowned traveling in part to satisfy a lust for adventure, and in part to seek out material for my writing. An exhausting 400-mile trek through the jungles of Liberia not only gave me a near brush with death, but provided fodder for Journey Without Maps. My journey to Mexico to witness the religious purges in 1938 was described in The Lawless Roads, and my horror of the Catholic persecution in Mexico led me to write The Power and the Glory, apparently the best novel of my career.Although I'm always apolitical as a writer, I do enjoy being politically connected and acting as a supporter for the oppressed. The extent of my involvement in the British Secret Service has become a matter of intense speculation, especially when I publicly declared myself a lifelong friend of Kim Philby, after working under him in the MI6.My financial success as an author enabled me to live very comfortably in London, Antibes, and Capri. I had many extra-marital affairs, and must confess I was a bad husband and a fickle lover. Towards the end of my life, I lived in Vevey, Switzerland with my companion Yvonne Cloetta, where I died peacefully on April 3, 1991.
