Graham Greene

Born into a wealthy and influential family in Hertfordshire in 1904, Graham Greene nearly didn't make it past puberty. A victim of bullies at the school where his father was headmaster, he attempted suicide several times and underwent six months of psychoanalysis for depression in 1921. He began his writing career in journalism and published his first novel in 1929, though he later disowned it. His future wife was a Catholic convert who wrote to him, correcting him on some piece of Catholic dogma he had written about. He converted to the faith and married her. However his womanising was well-known and he even left his wife to live with his mistress in the 1940s, though never divorced her. A fan of parody, when the New Statesman ran a compettition asking for parodies of his distinctively stark style, he entered and won second prize. He was surprised to learn his younger brother Hugh had won first place. He died at the age of 86 in Switzerland in 1991. "The moment comes when a character does or says something you hadn't thought about. At that moment he's alive and you leave it to him." - Graham Greene