The Fatal Englishman: Three Short Lives

Brilliant book. Clever idea, well written, interesting.

Truly moving account of three very different Englishmen and the times and environments they found themmselves in - a must read

3 fascinating lives - all cut short. Very absorbing.

I prefer Faulk's novels, still if you are not convinced yet of his brilliance as a writer...

Three short lives of three promising, talented Englishmen, none of whom ever met, but all of whom died tragically and young. Three very different personalities and social milieux - the artist in Brittany, the airman in the RAF, the spy in Moscow. All three men, and the reaction to their deaths, epitomise, in the view of the author, the strengths. aspirations, pressures and problems of English...more

Three short lives of three promising, talented Englishmen, none of whom ever met, but all of whom died tragically and young. Three very different personalities and social milieux - the artist in Brittany, the airman in the RAF, the spy in Moscow. All three men, and the reaction to their deaths, epitomise, in the view of the author, the strengths. aspirations, pressures and problems of English society between the late 19th to mid-20th century. It is also a gripping and, despite the tragic ends to each life portrayed, often highly amusing book. What makes this book so readable is the magnificent anecdotal style. Faulks is a master of powerful characterisations, often even of minor characters in the book. Readers will be introduced, for example, to Guy Burgess, whom "the KGB had provided with a guitar-playing boyfriend abd a pleasant flat near |Novodevichy monastery where, dressed in blue silk pyjamas from Fortnum and Mason, he was drinking himself to death on Armenian brandy". Then there is Jean Cocteau, the archpriest of turn-of-the-century decadence, who had "burst into Paris at the age of sixteen at a ball given by Mme de Chavannes at the Opera. He appeared dressed as Heliogabolus, the most dissolute of all Roman emperors, carried on a litter by two Nubian wrestlers". Or Princesse Violette Murat, "an enormous drug-addicted lesbian with a hunger for company", who "owned a white rat, whom she believed to be reincarnated, and had a fetish for cleanliness". Faulks is obviously a sociologist as much as a biographer, and fascinates the reader with insightful social commentary linked to the experiences of the main protagonists. Clearly deeply moved by the lives of all three men, and the waste that their deaths represent, Faulks brings a sensitive touch to the complex lives that he has immortalised in this book. Well worth the read.   hide

Sebastien Faulks does very well, and his writing is immaculate as usual, however it is a facutal book and it is biographical, and doesnt make for great bedtime reading. I gave up at Chirstopher Wood