This book tells the story of Christopher Wood (1901-1930), Richard Hillary (1919-1943), and Jeremy Wolfenden (1934-1965)—the fatal Englishmen, artist, fighter pilot and spy. I enjoyed the book but was not sure how to review it.

That provocative title led me to anticipate that Faulks would use the three lives to adduce an overarching or connecting theme related to the abbreviated lives of three Englishmen of the first half of the 20th century.

In a two-page Author’s Note at the beginning, Faulks writes: « The book [Remembering Denny by Calvin Trillin] made me think that young or short lives are more sensitive indicators of the pressures of public attitudes » than longer lives. He continues, writing that the three lives taken together « might well seem full enough to take away the sense of ‘so what’ that would cling to a single short life. »

Having undersold his project, the author continues by saying, in effect, BUT IF they « actually had achieved something interesting and if they were to come from different parts of the century and so have lived against a different public background and thus illustrate the impact of changing attitudes and preoccupations over a long period... ». Yes, the dots are his. And, no, Faulks certainly does not spell out the impact of changing attitudes... It seemed a bizarre introduction and an act of misdirection.

What the book does well is tell the stories of the three men and those stories are gripping and poignant, they did achieve interesting things and lived through interesting times. Their lives no doubt do illustrate something or other of a social/historical nature, but Faulks let me down in that regard.

So I really liked this book and am glad to have learned about three people I had never heard of. Just don’t read the Author’s Note!! ( )

Faulks has written the biographies of three young English males initially show tremendous potential and talent and were in two cases as the best Englishmen in their field. However they flamed out early dying young and not living up to the expectations that their talent, intellect and early educational advantages suggested they would meet. All three were unhappy in their lives to the point of ending them either by intention, accident many saw coming or drinking to the point the body gave out.

In their times, they were well known. Woods for his painting, Hillary as the fighter pilot and Wolfenden as a reporter and spy. I found the Woods biography difficult to read whereas Hillary's was fascinating. Wolfenden's was also an absorbing read. All three are well researched and full of detail. ( )

Three short biographies of three men who died young. One, a painter who risked everything to be the best British artist in the early 20th Century, ended delusional, drug dependent and sick with worry. The second a fighter pilot who crashed and burned but went on to fly again through a sense of duty to all his fellow pilots who had perished. Finally the utterly tragic story of Jeremy Wolfenden, child prodigy, the cleverest young man in Britain, whose life was destroyed in the dirty intrigues of international espionage.
Expertly written, concise, well researched. Three short biographies of people who are no longer remembered. Strongly recommended.

Fascinating book about three men who in their different ways seem to court death. Slightly too much detail for me, but brilliantly researched. I was especially struck by the destructive character of the sexuality of each, which I think is at the heart of Faulks' link between the three. In each the flaw of sexual energy tears at the integrity of the character, though alcohol and drugs come a close second. I found the portrait of public school and Oxbridge difficult to stomach and hope that I am not naive to think - and rejoice - that the world has changed to some degree. ( )

The Fatal Englishman is an unusual kind of biography. It traces the lives of three Englishmen - Christopher Wood, Richard Hillary and Jeremy Wolfenden - who shared no connection with one another other than their talent, their ambition, their arrogance, and their early and tragic deaths. Christopher 'Kit' Wood was a painter who moved in some up of the upper echelons of English and French bohemian society in the 1920s; Richard Hillary a fighter pilot in the RAF in the Battle of Britain, who wrote a book chronicling his short life and the horrific injuries which he received when his plane crashed; Jeremy Wolfenden was an outstandingly intelligent journalist, spy and alcoholic in the 1950s and 60s.

Most people will never have heard of these three men before they read this book; I certainly hadn't. Their lives were brief, and their legacies not to the forefront of contemporary culture. Wood was a minor artist; Hillary left only one slim volume of memoirs; Wolfenden's work as a journalist was ephemeral and is now mostly lost. However, Faulks uses their lives as a subtle way of exploring the evolution of English society over the course of the twentieth century, from the birth of Wood in 1901 to the death of Wolfenden in 1965. Wood is an example of the attitudes of the English towards the continent, towards art and culture after the tragedy of the Great War; Hillary, the attitudes and the tragedies experienced and felt by the British during the Battle of Britain; Wolfenden, the intricacies and double-play of the Cold War, and the perilous position held by gay men before the legalisation of homosexuality.

The writing throughout is excellent; and for the most part, Faulks resists the temptation of novelist-turned-biographer to embellish his work with fictional flourishes. The research is impeccable, and his knowledge of the periods in question is always displayed without showiness. For the most part, I agreed with his conclusions on the characters of those he was writing about, and about the periods in question (though I did have one or two little 'huh?' moments when he stated things like the fact that Kit Wood's mother didn't have to worry about him converting to Catholicism because he was attracted by the aesthetic, not the spiritual side; when really, that has seemed to me to be one of the primary motivations for Anglo-Catholic conversions in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. but that's another discussion entirely, I suppose). An excellent book, that fascinates and saddens with thoughts of what-might-have-been in equal measure. ( )