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Life
1916-1992; b. Liverpool of an Irish family [var. Cork]; travelled to East Africa at 19, and joined British Army during World War II; served Myanmar, Burma; issued Monsoon Victory (1946), based on experiences in first African Askari regiment in Burma under Colonel Slim; lived in Kenya during post-war years and wrote novels of expatriate life in a crumbling empire The Counsel at Sunset; The Year of the Lion (1953; rep. 1974); Drinkers of Darkness (1955); Without Love (1957); The Journey Homeward (1961; rep. 1984); Gilligan’s Last Elephant (1962), filmed in 1967; See You in Yasukini (1969); Warriors and Strangers (1971); Noble Descents (1982); made documentaries on India for BBC and wrote script for The Blue Ma x; elected to MIAL and Aosdana; settled in Roundwood, Co. Wicklow, c.1980; d. in hospital at Dun Laoghaire, 7 Sept. 1992; there is a head by Marjorie Fitzgibbon in the RDS. DIB KUN G20 OCIL
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Works
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Other works incl. short stories in journals, 1938-41; BBC radio plays and film-script of The Blue Max; Warriors and Strangers (London: Hamish Hamilton 1971), memoir of Somaliland and Kenya, and Warriors (1994; rep. London: Eland Books 2004), a version of the same |
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References
Aosdana: b. Liverpool, 1916; lived in Ireland since 1953; spent many years in Africa, India, the Middle East, as rancher, soldier, etc; worked in film; short stories in various journal, 1938-41; novels translated in many languages, and used as texts in Africa; MIAL. Lists The Consul at Sunset (1951); The Year of the Lion; Drinkers of Darkness; The Journey Homeward; Gilligan’s Last Elephant; See You in Yasukuni; memoirs, Warriors and Strangers; film script, The Blue Max.
Brian Cleeve & Ann Brady, A Dictionary of Irish Writers [rev. 1 vol. edn.] (Dublin: Lilliput 1985), notes that his work was admired by Hemingway.
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