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Graham Greene ( October 2, 1904 – April 3, 1991) was a prolific English novelist.

1 Life and work

He was born Henry Graham Greene in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, where his father was headmaster of Berkhamsted School, which he attended. He went on to Balliol College, Oxford, and his first work (a volume of poetry) was published in 1925, while he was an undergraduate. In his autobiography, he gives many details of his difficult childhood. After graduation, he became a Catholic, was briefly married, and took up a career in journalism. Amongst other things, he was a film critic, until he caused the closedown of the magazine for which he worked by getting it involved in a libel action as a result of a comment he made about Shirley TempleShirley Jane Temple (born April 23, 1928 in Santa Monica, California), later known as Shirley Temple Black is an American film actress and diplomat who is considered by many to be the most famous child actress in history. One of her first film roles was i.

His novelA novel is a long or extended work of fiction written in prose, usually in the form of a story. It is longer and more complex than a short story or novella (ie. 40,000+ words), and it is not bound by the restrictions of plays and poetry. The word "novel"s are written in a contemporary realistic style, often featuring characters troubled by self-doubt and living in seedy or rootless circumstances. The doubts were often of a religious nature, perhaps echoing the author's Roman Catholic beliefs.

Greene's books were originally divided into thrillers, mystery/suspense books that were cast as "entertainments" but which often included a notable philosophical edge, and the high literary books such as The Power and the GloryThe Power and the Glory is a novel written by British author Graham Greene. The title is an allusion to the doxology often added to the end of the Lord's Prayer: "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever, amen. The novel te, on which his reputation was thought to be based. As his career lengthened, however, Greene and his readers both found the "entertainments" to be of nearly as high a value as the literary efforts, and Greene's later efforts such as The Human Factor , The Comedians , Our Man in HavanaOur Man In Havana is a 1958 novel by Graham Greene. It was adapted into a movie directed by Carol Reed. In August 1941, Graham Greene joined the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6). An interesting sidelight of Greene's tenure in the SIS is the story and The Quiet AmericanThe Quiet American is a novel written by Graham Greene in 1955. It has been adapted into two films. The novel takes place in Saigon in the early 1950s during the end of the First Indochina War. It portrays two concurrent conflicts: a romantic triangle bet combine these modes into works of remarkable insight and compression.

In the last years of his life, Greene lived in the small resort city of VeveyVevey is a small city in Switzerland, located in the canton Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Geneva not far from Lausanne. It has a population of 15,473 (2002). It is the site for the world headquarters (but not fiscal HQ) of the food giant Nestle, founde, on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. On his passing in 1991, he was interred in the nearby cemetery in Corsier-sur-Vevey .