| The life and times of writer Brian
Cleeve I HAVE encountered many interesting people in the course
of my writing career. One of the most stimulating was the Irish writer
Brian Cleeve who died at his home in Shankill in South Dublin on March
11, 2003.
In the 1960s as an avid reader of thrillers I had read many of Brian’s
stories in Argosy magazine and novels such as Assignment To Vengeance
and Dark Blood, Dark Tower.
Brian Cleeve was born in 1921 in Essex of a well-known Limerick family
the Cleeve Creameries were famous.
The family was Anglican in religion and Brian was sent to an English public
school which after three years he absented himself from to join the Merchant
Navy to escape the Anglo-orientated education as he afterwards told me.
After returning from a trip working on the great liner the Queen Mary
Brian, seeing war on the horizon, joined the British Army and was commissioned
as a 2nd lieutenant.
Sent to Kenya he was put in charge of escorting an African prisoner to
a military stockade.
He was appalled at the abuse and physical ill-treatment the man received
when he handed the prisoner over to the military police.
Brian objected and had some uncomplimentary things to say about the British
Army and its empire.
The result was a court-martial in 1941 in Nairobi where 2nd Lieutenant
Cleeve was found guilty, stripped of his commission and sentenced to three
years penal servitude.
After some months gaol in Nairobi he was shipped to Wakefield Prison where
some of his fellow inmates were IRA men.
In 1942 Brian found himself faced with an offer he could not refuse. He
would be released immediately provided he accept service in MI6 by rejoining
the Merchant Navy and travelling to neutral countries.
There he was to use his background as a disgruntled court-martialled British
officer to make contact with German spies and learn their secrets.
In 1945 with the end of the war Brian settled for a time in Dublin where
he met and married his first wife Veronica McAdie.
Now Brian felt the drive to be a writer. Browne & Nolan turned down
a novel based on Greek myth after the president of UCD Michael Tierney
intervened to condemn it as decadent.
By 1947 Brian, his wife and their first child set out to travel to Europe.
They wound up in South Africa where to earn a living he began selling
insurance.
By 1953 he had published his first three books and first short story.
It was in November that year that Brian was served with a notice by the
South Africa Government declaring him an undesirable resident and ordering
him to quit the country.
He became the first anti-apartheid protester ever expelled from South
Africa. Brian had made no disguise about his opposition to the apartheid
regime.
In 1954 the Cleeves decided to settle back in Ireland and it was here
that Brian’s career began to take off.
From an apartment in Terenure in Dublin he began to be published regularly
in magazines and was also offered a job as a sub-editor on the Evening
Press. Talks on Radio Éireann and a series in the Irish Independent
improved the finances.
As an RTÉ presenter Brian won awards for his moving and thought-provoking
television programmes.
Brian even became fencing champion of Ireland twice and received a PhD
from the National University of Ireland.
His thrillers were now compared to those of Ian Fleming and John Le Carré.
By the 1960s he was writing plays produced on Radio Éireann, Telefís
Éireann and the BBC.
In 1977 having been a convert to Catholicism for many years he began to
be overtly religious.
He wrote a controversial dialogue with God The House On The Rock which
became a bestseller in Ireland in 1980.
Other studies on religion and mysticism followed and it seemed that Brian
had forsaken his life as a bestselling popular writer.
It was in 1982 that I received a letter from Brian asking if he could
quote some passages from one of my books in a forthcoming study A View
Of The Irish which was to be published the following year.
As an interim expression of thanks Brian sent me a copy of his latest
book 1938: A World Vanishing which was a brilliant study of life during
one particular year.
Thereafter we corresponded regularly on many topics and it is true that
he often dwelt on his religious views and sent me a copy of his book The
Fourth Mary in which he told the story of the Crucifixion from the viewpoint
of the enemies of Jesus.
He told me that he regarded this as the last of a trilogy in which he
included The House On The Rock and The Seven Mansions.
Dublin businessman Jim Bruce has recently written a biography of his friend
entitled Faithful Servant: A Memoir Of Brian Cleeve which is a sympathetic
and fascinating account.
It makes enthralling reading.
While not belittling Brian’s religious mysticism it was his competence
as a popular thriller writer that made me admire him.
I was happy to point out to another friend of mine Peter Haining who
was editing the Great Irish Stories series that Brian was more than qualified
to appear although he had not published a short story for many years.
In fact Brian became enthused at Peter Haining’s interest and even
found a short story he had neglected to publish, written in 1988 entitled
Mr Murphy And The Angel.
Brian was one of Ireland’s great short story writers and it is a
pity more of his work is not in collections.
Sadly at this moment it looks as though all Brian will be remembered for
is his Biographical Dictionary Of Irish Writers written with Mary Brady
which remains an indispensable reference work.
Let’s hope that situation is swiftly remedied. |
