Seeds of Fiction: Graham Greene's Adventures in Haiti and Central America 1954-1983; Bernard Diederich

In 1965, Graham Greene joined journalist Bernard Diederich in the Dominican Republic to embark on a tour of its border with Haiti, then ruled by 'Papa Doc' Duvalier. They were accompanied by an activist priest, Jean-Claude Bajeux. The famous novelist was 61 and depressed having struggled to finish A Burnt-Out Case and was being plagued by religious doubt; Bajeux, meanwhile, had been informed that his family had been 'disappeared' by Duvalier's henchmen. As this trio travelled along the border they met a number of rebels and other characters later fictionalized in Greene's most politically charged novel, The Comedians, published the following year. This major new biography finally and fully illuminates a pivotal episode in Greene's life and career in the kind of detail that will sate any fans of Graham Greene's work.