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Brian Cleeve (1921-2003) |
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Irish author and TV broadcaster, whose popular fiction ranged from hard-boiled crime stories to Regency romances. In his later life, Cleeve wrote religious works set at the time of the Crusifixion. "Behind the political Ireland which fought for and at last won its independence lies nothing else but Irish literature. Within it are all the forces which gave Irishmen pride in being Irish and a determination not to be English; religion,faith courage, remembrance of greatness, sorrow for defeat, and a way of looking at the world, at a bird in the sky, at a girl by the roadside, at an old woman or an empty mountainside or a tree, that has grown out of this soil and could grow out of no other." (from Dictionary of Irish Writers. Volume Three, 1971) Brian (Brendan Talbot) Cleeve was born at Thorpe Bay, Essex, the son
of Charles Edward, a businessman, and Josephine Cleeve (née Talbot).
His mother died when he was very young and he was brought up by his
maternal grandparents. Cleeve's father remarried a wealthy widow named
Eleanor Halifax, who had three children from a previous union. The
marriage ended in divorce seven years later. Eleanor was an alcoholic
with a violent temper. Cleeve was educated at Selwyn House, Broadstairs, Kent (1930-35), and St. Edward's School in Oxford (1935-38). At the age of seventeen he ran away to see. He then joined the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders as a private soldier. When the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union broke out in 1939, Brian Cleeve volunteered to take part in an expedition to fight with the Finns against the Russian invaders. At that time he was undergoing officer training in the British army. Cleeve was sent to the French Alps for ski training but the war ended before the expedition could be mounted. Following the outbreak of World War II, Cleeve was sent to Kenya,
where he was court-martialled for expressing his disgust of the way the
whites treated the natives. After being released from a prison in
Yorkshire, he worked for the British Intelligence as a counter-spy,
sailing as an ordinary merchant seaman to cover his true mission.
Cleeve converted to Roman Catholicism in 1942, but he kept it secret
from his Protestant family for many years. In 1945, Cleeve married Veronica McAdie, who worked in her family's hairdressing salon. They had two daughters, Berenice and Tanga. In 1948 he settled with his family in Johannesburg, where he worked as a freelance journalist and salesman. Cleeve received his B.A. from the University of South Africa in 1953. An outspoken critic of Apartheid, he was expelled from the country in 1954, after publishing the novel Birth of a Dark Soul (1953), which concerned with the relationships between the different races in pre-Apartheid South Africa. Cleeve returned to Ireland, where he studied at the National University of Ireland, Dublin, obtaining the Ph.D. degree in 1956. His thesis dealt with the origin of Shakespeare's tale of Hamlet. Assignment to Vengeance (1961), Cleeve's first mystery novel, was reviewed in The Observer: "Don't miss. Fast, exciting, and by no means incredible chase-thriller...." The story told about an ex-British Intelligence agent, who is called back into service to track down a former Nazi officer. Like Graham Greene, who had worked for the SIS during the war, and Ian Fleming, who was an ex-Naval Intelligence officer, Cleeve drew on his own experiences. Vote X for Treason (1964) introduced the ex-Irish revolutionary Sean Ryan, who is recruited by the British intelligence. Other books in the Sean Ryan series include Dark Blood, Dark Terror (1965), The Judas Goat (1966), and Violent Death of a Bitter Englishman (1967). Cleeve's interest in history led him to publish Regency romances, Sara (1976), Kate (1977),
and Judith (1978). Originally Cleeve planned to focus on a historical family saga covering the 19th century,
but the heroine of Sara
inspired him to write three other novels with vaguely similar themes.
In these works Cleeve followed a feminist tradition – his female
protagonists struggle against multiple yokes of oppression, but they
eventually manage rise above the downward pull of circumstances. Cleeve
produced also a number of short stories, of which 'Foxer' was collected
in Best Detective Stories of the Year 1966, edited by Anthony Boucher. Cleeve himself compiled only one collection, The Horse Thieves of Ballysaggert (1966). From 1962 to 1973 Cleeve worked for Telefís Éireann, which had started its regular television broadcasts on New Year's eve 1961. In 1964, Brian Cleeve won the prestigious Jacob’s Television Award for his contribution to Discovery, a documentary television series. After the current affairs programme 7 Days began its broadcasts in 1966, Cleeve joined the team. Cleeve's later books, such as The House on the Rock (1980) and The Seven Mansions (1980), could be described as meditations on certain spiritual and religious themes. His views were unorthodox, but not contrary to Catholic doctrines: "a mother is a better image of the Creator than a father," he once said, defending the ancient idea that God can be regarded as feminine. Cleeve's works of non-fiction include the three-volume Dictionary of Irish Writers (1967-72). Its second edition, edited with Anne M. Brady, came out in 1988. After Veronica Cleeve died in 1999, he married Patricia Ledwidge. Cleeve died of a heart attack on March 11, 2003. His last novel of mysticism was A Woman of Fortune (1993). For further reading: 'Cleeve, Brian' by Virginia Macdonald, in Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers, ed. by John M. Reilly (1985); 'Cleeve, Brian' by Gina Macdonald, in Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers, ed. by Aruna Vasudevan (1994); Servant of God: A Memoir of Brian Cleeve by Jim Bruce (2006); Faithful Servant: A Memoir of Brian Cleeve by Jim Bruce (2007) - For further information: An Invitation by Brian Cleeve; Brian Cleeve (Answers.com) Selected works:
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