The Fatal Englishman

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...a searing examination of the Romantic Byronic spirit of a certain kind of Englishness... - Rated
To believe that this is a collection of incipient novellas is to misunderstand the purport of the book. It is a searing examination of the Romantic Byronic spirit of a certain kind of Englishness - that of the outsider, well-educated and assured but also tenderly, tragically flawed. It has much more to do with the theme of Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom or the disclosures of Sassoon than some imagined cutesy nostalgic view.
Each of the characters is examined as a contrasting icon within their zeitgeist. The prevailing mores and challenges of their respective times cumulatively constrict and ultimately kill them. They all share a putative rosy future but this is soured by their very own identities which do not allow them to thrive and prosper in their chosen activities of painting, aviation and espionage. The writing is nicely judged and if masculine is still open enough to lay bare much that remains unspoken...

a bit of a disappointment - Rated
Having first read Birdsong and Charlotte Gray, I found that this was a little disappointing, and I found that the only story that I enjoyed out of the three was of Richard Hillary. If you have read birdsong and some of his others then don't bother with this - you will start to lose faith in the author who managed to produce two other wonderful pieces.

The intriguing stories of three forgotten prodigies - Rated
Three biographical sketches of talented Englishmen who met early demises aided by (respectively)opium, foolhardiness, and alcohol, and (in all three cases) cultural/generational mythologies. Faulks is a thoughtful biographer, and his narrative style, despite some redundancies, hooks the reader for the duration. What surprised me is that his other books appear to be slushy romantic novels, albeit well-written ones. Even if you pass on them (as I did), this book is well worth reading and a good deal more hard-headed and analytical than his other titles might suggest. (One caveat: everyone who glances at the title seems to think Shelley, Keats, etc., a mistake facilitated by the cover of the imported paperback I read. The fault seems to have been remedied in part by a new cover on the latest edition.)

Dragons on their shoulders - Rated
I picked up Three fatal Englishmen after my first Sebastian Faulks encounter, which was Birdsong.

The three people in question are young men of brilliance. Their talents - artistic, courageous, and intellectual - are as varied as their personalities and surrounding environments.

Yet there is commonality throughout the narratives. These are men with a thermal nuclear intensity of purpose and dedication - a snap dragon occupies each man's shoulder. These are men living within oceanic environments of change, where the forces that tempt them in to the water are the forces that eventually cover and destroy them.

Few people will have heard about the lives of Christopher, Richard and Jeremy before opening the book. I was glad about that. It creates a freshness that is often lacking in biographies; there are no prejudices or expectations beyond the historical setting of each story. The book is set barely a generation away from today, but few of us can really appreciate the lives and surroundings that Faulkes is describing.

How does Faulkes achieve this? Well I sensed the same kind of Ravel's Bolero approach that was evident in the final stages of Birdsong, where the narrative slowly builds and builds - tempting you towards the tragic climax. Mix in Faulkes' journalistic precision, the right focus and balance on historical detail and I think you have an answer for why these biographies work.

For me the most engaging was number two - the story of Richard Hillary the fighter pilot. Perhaps this is familiar territory for Faulks, the chaos of war and its' tragic ironies. I think it's easy to pick up the evident fascination for the incredible changes that war creates inside the individual.

Let me conclude by summarising Faulk's achievement as a well formed tribute to three fascinating men living in three different and compelling worlds. Enjoy the experience!

Compelling biography of three exceptional British men - Rated
Acclaimed novelist Sebastian Faulks (Birdsong, Charlotte Gray) turns his hand to biography with this vivid account of the brief lives of a 1920s painter, a World War II flying ace, and a Cold War spy.

Christopher Wood was a gifted but struggling artist who eked out an existence on the fringes of the glittering Paris social scene, before committing suicide at the age of 29 in 1930. Richard Hillary was a decorated war hero who returned to flying after recovering from severe injuries, only to die in an fatal air crash at 24, and Jeremy Wolfenden was a formidably intelligent and rakish Cambridge graduate who may or may not have been recruited as a spy while working in Moscow in the early 1960s; at 31, burnt-out, he died of a suspected drink and drugs overdose.

Faulks writes an intense, compassionate account of these tragically short lives; immersing the reader in each gripping yet ultimately poignant personal story, as well as sharply evoking the decade to which each of the fatal Englishmen belonged.