Book description
Edited by the author's grandson, the novelist Matthew Yorke, and with
an Introduction by John Updike, this book is an excellent selection of
Henry Green's uncollected writings. It includes a number of outstanding
stories never previously published, written during the '20s and '30s
("Bees", "Saturday", "Excursion", and the
remarkable "Mood" among them). It contains a highly
entertaining account of Green's service in the London Fire Brigade
during the War; a short play written in the 1950s; and a selection of
his journalism, including revelatory articles about the craft of
writing, a marvellous evocation of Venice, a description of falling in
love, reviews which illuminate his literary enthusiasm and the
entertaining interview with Terry Southern for the
Paris Review
. It is rounded off with a biographical memoir by Green's son, Sebastian
Yorke. Fascinating and invaluable as an introduction to Green,
Surviving
casts new light on his work and illustrates the many facets of this
exceptional writer, one of the two most important English novelists of
his time.
