A Very English Hero: The Making of Frank Thompson

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

An untold story of love, idealism and courage in the Second World War 'A very moving account of the all-too-brief life of a warrior-poet' Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad 'An elegy for a lost generation, and a fascinating social and political history of a peculiar period in our recent past ... it's impossible to put down Conradi's impressive and moving account of Thompson's life without a feeling of regret.' Mail on Sunday Modest, handsome and a fine poet, eccentric Englishman Frank Thompson made an unlikely soldier. Brother of E. P. Thompson and lover of Iris Murdoch, Frank was an intellectual idealist, a rare combination of brilliant mind and enormous heart. Of his wartime experiences, Frank wrote prodigiously. His letters, diaries and poetry still read fresh and intimate today - and it is from these that Peter J. Conradi brings vividly to life a brilliantly attractive and courageous personality. Aged just twenty-three, Frank was captured, tortured and executed in Bulgaria. A soldier of principle and integrity, he fought a poet's war; a very English hero from a very different era.

Reviews

A very moving account of the all-too-brief life of a warrior-poet * Antony Beevor *
An elegy for a lost generation, and a fascinating social and political history of a peculiar period in our recent past ... it's impossible to put down Conradi's impressive and moving account of Thompson's life without a feeling of regret. **** * Simon Griffith, Mail on Sunday *
Inspiring ... Intensely absorbing, steeped in human interest and peppered with outlandish characters * Sunday Times *
[An] excellent, absorbing biography ... Mr Conradi tells the true story, movingly and well ... He convincingly portrays an attractive, brilliant and courageous personality, an intellectual with a heart who loved laughter, an idealist who merits the title of this book * Economist *
[A] magnificent and tragic biography * Anne Sebba, Jewish Chronicle *
Impeccably researched ... A fine description of the biographer's role, and generous quotations from Frank Thompson's letter and poems recreate his bulky, restless, energetic presence. But it is Conradi's own more subtle presence that locks the reader into the narrative ... A pensive, moving and very personal book * Frances Wilson, Observer *
Moving and gripping, told with great lucidity and sympathy ... a story of heroic times and hopes * Margaret Drabble *
Superb * Times Literary Supplement *

Author Bio

Peter J. Conradi became interested in Frank Thompson while researching his critically acclaimed Iris Murdoch: A Life, the authorised biography. He is also the author of The Saint and the Artist, a study of her novels and thought; of critical studies of Dostoevsky, Angus Wilson and John Fowles; and, most recently, Going Buddhist and At the Bright Hem of God. He lives in London and Radnorshire where he gardens, walks, edits the Radnorshire Transactions and chairs the Bleddfa Trust. He was elected FRSL in 2011.