The Fatal Englishman: Three Short Lives (2002) - Plot & Excerpts
While the three mini-biographies in this volume were clearly told, I reamin unsure as to why it recieved plaudits. There were some links between the lives and fates of the men that justified putting them together but for me it was nothing special, sorry. The story of the self-destructive airman was the most powerful - maybe because of it's position at the end it gained strength by being an implicit commentary on the other two lives ... or is that just me trying to be as deep as a more literary reviewer?The edition I have is not one that is shown - a Vintage paperback with a detail from a Blake painting (the same one used on the front of some editions of Skellig I think) on the cover. I read about Wood's painttings blind as I was unaware some had been reproduced in the plates section - a pointer to them would have been nice for someone who doesn't automatically turn to the pictures first but takes them in their place as a diversion. This will probably become a BookCrossing book in due course, as I am not bursting to re-read it.
I cannot say I thoroughly enjoyed this read as it has made me very disquieted & I had to read something else pretty quickly. I agree with another reviewer that it reflects the society the men grew up in & the problems within it. I already knew something of Christopher Wood as I am a practising artist & have been familiar with a lot of his work since I was an undergraduate in the 1970s. I had heard something of Richard Hillary & his book but I was ignorant about Jeremy Wolfenden till I read this book. His story was the most distressing as he had such potential, but left, unlike the others, nothing behind & the nature of his fall & death was quite revolting, I found the post mortem reports quite gruesome.I would recommend it to others to read though as it is a historical document & indicates some of the difficulties unconventional characters faced in the earlier 20thc.
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