Seeds of Fiction

Seeds of Fiction: Graham Greene's Adventures in Haiti and Central America, 1954 - 1963 by Bernard Diederich.

In June 2012, Peter Owen Publishers will be publishing a major new biography of Graham Greene - Seeds of Fiction: Graham Greene's Adventures in Haiti and Central America, 1954 - 1963. 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, but also provides a fascinating glimpse into a writer's life, making it an essential purchase for fans of literary biography. Including extensive new archive material on Greene and exclusive, never-before-seen photographs of Greene on his travels - some of the most remarkable portraits of Greene seen for years - Seeds of Fiction tells the story of how a series of extraordinary and often hair-raising journeys gave one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century new inspiration in his writings.

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