Broken Archangel: The Tempestuous Lives of Roger Casement

(Paperback)

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The extraordinary story of Roger Casement: a pioneering human rights campaigner, a patriot and traitor, a romantic unable to openly express his sexuality, a complex man ahead of his time.

In 1904, Casement became internationally celebrated for unearthing the grotesque, murderous violence of the Belgian Congo. Soon after he won even greater renown and a knighthood for his humanitarian work in South America.

But the internal fault lines ran deep: neither fully Irish nor English, baptised both Protestant and Catholic, desperate for love but forbidden intimacy, and of the English diplomatic establishment yet an outsider who fought for Irish nationhood. His final act in wartime Berlin a doomed scheme to mastermind an invasion of Ireland overwhelmed him, although the following trial for treason afforded him some peace even as it took him to an unmarked prison grave.

Compassionate, self-deluding, courageous, altruistic and plagued by poor health, Roger Casement was a contradictory figure made fallible by contemporary mores and his own powerful, unexamined emotions. Only decades later did an Irish state funeral finally assert Casements nobility above his notoriety and only now can we understand his surprisingly modern and deeply relevant life and legacy.

Reviews

This minutely researched, superbly written and genuinely exciting biography explores and ultimately convincingly explains the historical conundrum that was Sir Roger Casement. I cant remember turning the pages of a non-fiction book so eagerly to find out what happened next, secure in the knowledge that with Roland Philipps I was in the hands of a master-storyteller * Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill *

*Praise for Roland Philipps' Previous Books*

A page-turner of the most empathetic kind

* Guardian on A Spy Named Orphan *
Cracking... a persuasive and polished biography * Sunday Times on A Spy Named Orphan *
So extraordinary it almost defies belief * The Times on Victoire *

Author Bio

Roland Philipps went into publishing on graduating from Cambridge and until recently was Publisher of John Murray. He has edited some leading novelists, politicians, historians, travellers and biographers. A Spy Named Orphan, his first book, arises from lifelong connections to Donald Maclean and his story.