The Fatal Englishman: Three Short Lives [Paperback]

Sebastian Faulks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 12, 2002

In The Fatal Englishman, his first work of nonfiction, Sebastian Faulks explores the lives of three remarkable men. Each had the seeds of greatness; each was a beacon to his generation and left something of value behind; yet each one died tragically young.
Christopher Wood, only twenty-nine when he killed himself, was a painter who lived most of his short life in the beau monde of 1920s Paris, where his charm, good looks, and the dissolute life that followed them sometimes frustrated his ambition and achievement as an artist.
Richard Hillary was a WWII fighter pilot who wrote a classic account of his
experiences, The Last Enemy, but died in a mysterious training accident while defying doctor’s orders to stay grounded after horrific burn injuries; he was twenty-three.
Jeremy Wolfenden, hailed by his contemporaries as the brightest Englishman of
his generation, rejected the call of academia to become a hack journalist in Cold War Moscow. A spy, alcoholic, and open homosexual at a time when such activity was still illegal, he died at the age of thirty-one, a victim of his own recklessness and of the peculiar pressures of his time.
Through the lives of these doomed young men, Faulks paints an oblique
portrait of English society as it changed in the twentieth century, from the Victorian era to the modern world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his first work of nonfiction, Faulks, a bestselling British novelist, takes up the brief but brilliant lives of three gifted countrymen who died young: painter Christopher Wood; fighter pilot Richard Hillary; and foreign correspondent Jeremy Wolfenden, considered the brightest mind of his generation. Through these tragic tales, Faulks explores the British character as it painfully evolved during the 20th century, spurring both the acceleration and fatal plunge of these vital young men. Wood, a part of the beau monde of 1920s Paris, drew praise from the likes of Picasso and Jean Cocteau. Hillary, who heroically returned to the skies after a fiery dogfight, won renown as a writer in his early 20s. While the sections on Wood and Hillary prove interesting, they are sometimes plodding, and shot through to distraction with background information. The final section on Wolfenden, however, is gripping. Great things were expected of the Eton and Oxford standout even as he became a reckless, alcoholic correspondent in Moscow, drawn into the world of Cold War espionage. While ambition, addiction and arrogance play destructive roles in these lives, homosexuality and the British attitude toward it is a recurring theme that Faulks suggests as a contributing factor. But the complaints here are mostly minor. The writing is solid, at times poetic, and the research thorough. In the end, Faulks manages to jolt the imagination with the tantalizing agony of what-might-have-been. 8 pages of photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Fans of novelist Faulks's evocative depictions of wartime heroism (e.g., Charlotte Gray) will embrace his first venture into biography, a study of three brilliant yet mortally flawed men who lived on either side of the World War II era. Working in chronological order, Faulks first sketches the life of artist Christopher "Kit" Wood. Wood's ambition to become a great painter led him to Paris in the 1920s, where charm and circumstance placed him in the company of cultural giants like Picasso and Cocteau. In a profile of Royal Air Force ace Richard Hillary, Faulks ably changes gears as he describes a man who personified the casual fatalism of a spitfire pilot. Faulks finishes with Jeremy Wolfenden, a proud homosexual and dazzlingly intelligent journalist ensnared in Cold War blackmail and spy games. Of course, as the title informs us, these men are all doomed to an early death. There is nothing romantic about killing yourself with drugs, drink, or daredevilry, yet Faulks is able to captivate with his meticulous, caring treatment of these three who died on the cusp of greatness. Recommended for all public and academic libraries. Gail Benjafield, St. Catharines P.L., Ont.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (March 12, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375727442
• ISBN-13: 978-0375727443
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #804,408 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read, January 8, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Fatal Englishman: Three Short Lives (Paperback)

This book is wonderful. I let my art professor borrow this book and she went out and bought a copy for herself. But, not before taking time before a lecture to thank me for introducing her to this work. Most people have never heard of these men but they are fascinating and tragic. One becomes an artist after being stricken with polio. He displays talent and Picasso and Cocteau praise him. He works frantically but becomes frustrated and perhaps displays symptons of schizophrenia. His very death is a mystery, maybe he was pushed or jumped in front of an oncoming train. The second is different from the other two by his arrogance and personality. He is a pilot during WWII. Soon, he becomes the last surviving pilot of his outfit and against warnings and advice flies again, crashes and dies. He was horribly burned in a previous plane crash, which kept him from flying for a while, that changes everything for him. That's a given but he was a big flirt and used to getting women easily charmed. He even had an affair with a Hollywood movie actress. She starred opposite of Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights-Merle Oberon. The third and final man in this book is to me the most tragic. He is a man of complete brillance and very bright in everything he does. He flies through school with humor, charm, and by his intelligence. His teachers complain that he breezes through his education far too easily but brillantly. His sexuality poses a problem at a time when it was outlawed in Britain. His father is a sort of senator who loves his son, but there is conflict because of this law. He falls into alcoholism perhaps because of boredom. Even though intelligent in all subjects he has no one outstanding favorite subject, let's say. He becomes a journalist and gets tangled with the KGB and British intelligence and eventually CIA. At a certain point, he marries, which surprises all his friends, and talks of having children but dies mysteriously. The woman he married, he used to associate with in Russia during his stay as a reporter. Faulks engages you with his research and facts and doesn't really elaborate and digress. So, the life story of each man doesn't become murky unless he is going over a murky period of the men's lives. Each biography is told separately and like an essay comes together satisfactorily in the end. A sort of guilt comes over while reading and looking at the pictures though. It's as if someone could have tried harder for each or it makes you think about people in your life and wonder about them. Very good but I didn't like Faulk's book Birdsong. Mentioning that because I bought it after adoring this book.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Fatal Englishman : Three Short Lives, May 12, 2000

By 

Murray (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fatal Englishman (Hardcover)

This book is definitely worth the read. It traces the lives of 3 individuals. All live life to the full, with passion and ambition. What they have in common is not only their passion and ambition in life but that they all die young. It is an inspiring read to see what they overcame and accomplished in their quest for happiness and perfection in their life space. Read it.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, September 27, 2008

By 

Michael D. Hoy - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Fatal Englishman: Three Short Lives (Paperback)

As the sub-title indicates, 'The Fatal Englishman" traces the relatively short lives of 3 Englishmen. Painter Christopher Wood; WW2 fighter pilot Richard Hillary and foreign correspondent Jeremy Wolfenden. They are all fairly well-known from other sources and why Faulks chose this particular trio is not clear.

I only bought 'The Fatal Englishman' because I'd enjoyed a couple of others by Faulks - particularly 'Birdsong', but I did not finish this book. I did not find the lives or stories of any of these men particularly interesting. Those that do would be better-off reading their individual biographies than this book.