Graham Greene – Biographical Notes

Henry Graham Greene, considered as one of the finest modern novelists was born in 1904 in
Berkhamstead England to a middle class family of six children, of which he was the fourth. A
timid, sensitive boy, Graham Greene was bullied mercilessly at the school he attended in his
early years, where his father was Headmaster. This treatment resulted in his attempting
suicide on a number of occasions for which his parents sought to give him psychiatric help.

Unable to take it anymore, he ran away to London at age 15, where he resided for a time
with a psycho analyst Kenneth Richmond who encouraged him to write, even introducing
him to some of his literary friends. Greene enrolled in Balliol College Oxford where he read
modern history, becoming involved in politics and joining the Communist Party. At Oxford,
Greene developed his writing skills, producing his first novel ‘Anthony Saint’ prior to
graduation. It was here that he met his future wife, Vivienne Dayrell Browning who rejected
his first proposal of marriage since he was an atheist (she was a fervent Catholic convert).
They married after Greene converted to Catholicism too and had two children.

Despite becoming a Catholic, Greene had a very individual perception of man’s relationship
with God. He firmly believed that this relationship was a very personal one, unlike the one
size fits all ritual approach adopted by the Catholic Church. He saw God as an all forgiving
God who was not shackled by the Church’s dogmas and rituals. This theme is explored
deeply in Greene’s so called Christian novels such as his masterpiece The Power and the
Glory as well as The Heart of the Matter. His view of Catholicism led him into conflict with
the Church, so much so that some of his books were initially banned. Nevertheless, Greene
continued with his beliefs throughout his life.

Greene and his wife moved to London where he became a copy editor at The Times, during
which time he wrote the novel The Man Within, which was his first success. This success
spurred him to leave the Times and embark on a career as a freelancer. He produced a
string of novels which he called ‘entertainments’, of the thriller genre.

Greene had travelled extensively during his stint at The Times where, for a time he was also
a travel writer. His experiences in varied, many times exotic countries, all contributed to his
developing these experiences as settings for his thriller novels. These settings were so vivid
and accurately painted that they came to be known as Greeneland.
Thus, The Heart of the Matter is set in Sierra Leone, where Greene had lived for a time
whilst working for the Foreign Office during World War Two. His travels to Mexico provided
the setting for what is considered to be his greatest work, The Power and the Glory that
recounts the wanderings of a dissolute priest on the run from the Communist Government
forces.

Besides the religion, Greene explores other themes in his novels. For example, morality,
responsibility, loyalty, isolation and corruption are investigated deeply in The Heart of the
Matter, as well as many of his other novels. These are united by many common features
such as danger, violence and decay (both moral and physical) which are often set in the
precarious settings that make up the world of Greenland.

Reading Greene’s novels may be likened to reading a screenplay. Greene was fascinated by
the cinema. The fast interplay in the narrative and the discourse by the players makes his
novels admirably suited to the world of cinema. Indeed, it is no surprise that a number of his
books eventually became best selling films.

Greene died in 1991 in Vevey Switzerland leaving behind him a literary legacy, particularly
within the thriller genre.