Brian Moore: A Biography

The only wise prediction to make about a new Brian Moore novel is that it will be unpredictable and wise, wrote Christopher Ricks reviewing Black Robe, one of the 20 magnificent novels which put Brian Moore into the first rank of world writers. Northern Ireland may have shaped him, as he grew up one of nine children in a Catholic doctor's Belfast household, but World War II took him to Africa and war-ravaged Europe, and Canada freed him to become a writer. In 1955 he published The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, the first of many novels which led steadily to international critical acclaim. He was a writer's writer, baffling contemporaries with how he pulled off his literary feats. Patricia Craig, who began this authorised biography with the help and blessing of Brian Moore himself, and his wife Jean, pieces together the colourful life that lay behind the novels. She also reveals the droll, romantic, cant-hating, affable and brilliant man who so disarmingly enhanced 20th century letters.