Henry
Green was the pen name of Henry Vincent Yorke (29 October 1905 – 13 December
1973), an English author best remembered for the novels Party Going,
Living and Loving. He published a total of nine novels between 1926
and 1952. Queer Places:
Eton College, Windsor
University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 3PA
Henry
Green was the pen name of Henry Vincent Yorke (29 October 1905 – 13 December
1973), an English author best remembered for the novels Party Going,
Living and Loving. He published a total of nine novels between 1926
and 1952.
Green was born near Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, into an educated family with successful business interests. His father Vincent Wodehouse Yorke, the son of John Reginald Yorke and Sophia Matilda de Tuyll de Serooskerken, was a wealthy landowner and industrialist in Birmingham. His mother, Hon. Maud Evelyn Wyndham, was daughter of the second Baron Leconfield.[1] Green grew up in Gloucestershire and attended Eton College, where he became a friend of fellow pupil Anthony Powell[2] and wrote most of his first novel, Blindness. He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford and there began a friendship and literary rivalry with Evelyn Waugh of Hertford College.[2]
At Oxford Yorke was part of the Railway Club, which also included Henry Yorke, Roy Harrod, Henry Thynne, 6th Marquess of Bath, David Plunket Greene, Edward Henry Charles James Fox-Strangways, 7th Earl of Ilchester, Brian Howard, Michael Parsons, 6th Earl of Rosse, John Sutro, Hugh Lygon, Harold Acton, Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne, Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross, Mark Ogilvie-Grant, John Drury-Lowe.[3]
Green left Oxford in 1926 without taking a degree[4] and returned to Birmingham to engage in his family business.[1][5] He started by working with the ordinary workers on the factory floor of his family's factory, which produced beer-bottling machines, and later became the managing director. During this time he gained the experience to write Living, his second novel, which he worked on during 1927 and 1928.[6] In 1929, he married his second cousin, the Hon. Adelaide Biddulph, also known as 'Dig'. They were both great-grandchildren of the 1st Baron Leconfield. Their son Sebastian was born in 1934.[7] In 1940, Green published Pack My Bag, which he regarded as a nearly-accurate autobiography.[8] During World War II Green served as a fireman in the Auxiliary Fire Service[1] and these wartime experiences are echoed in his novel Caught; they were also a strong influence on his subsequent novel, Back.
Green's last published novel was Doting (1952); this was the end of his writing career. In his later years, until his death in 1973, he became increasingly focused on studies of the Ottoman Empire, and became alcoholic and reclusive.[9][10] Politically, Green was a traditional Tory throughout his life.[11]
Railway Club at Oxford, conceived by John Sutro, dominated by Harold Acton. (Left to right) Back: Henry Yorke, Roy Harrod, Henry Weymouth, David Plunket Greene, Harry Stavordale, Brian Howard. Middle row: Michael Rosse, John Sutro, Hugh Lygon, Harold Acton, Bryan Guinness, Patrick Balfour, Mark Ogilvie-Grant, Johnny Drury-Lowe. Front: porters.
My published books:
