Graham Greene

Graham Greene was born in 1904. He was educated at Berkhamsted School and after graduating from Balliol College, Oxford, he joined the staff of The Times in 1926. His first novel, The Man Within, was published in 1929. This was followed by Stamboul Train (1932), It's a Battlefield (1934), England Made Me (1935) and A Gun for Sale (1936).

In 1936 Greene became the film critic of Spectator. Later he was appointed as the magazine's literary editor. During this period he published Brighton Rock (1938), The Confidential Agent (1939) and The Power and the Glory (1940).

In the Second World War Greene worked for the Foreign Office as a spy in Sierra Leone. On his return to England he wrote the screenplay for The Third Man and published a series of best-selling novels including The Heart of the Matter (1948), The End of the Affair (1951), The Quiet American (1955) and our Man in Havana (1958).

Other novels published by Greene included A Burnt-Out Case (1961), The Comedians (1966), Travels With My Aunt (1969), The Honorary Council (1973) and The Human Factor (1978).

Greene's left-wing opinions brought him to the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Secret service agents were particularly concerned about Greene's support of governments that resisted US domination in Latin America.

Greene was also a strong opponent of the government in Soviet Union. For many years he forbade his work to be published in the Soviet Union because of its appalling human rights record. His views on the country changed when Mikhail Gorbachev came to power and in 1987 he took part in an international peace forum in Moscow. Graham Greene died in France in 1991.