John Alan Patrick Lodwick (2 March 1916 – 18 March 1959) was a British novelist.

Life

Son of a father in the Indian Army, who died in the sinking of the SS Persia just before his son's birth, Lodwick attended

Cheltenham College Cheltenham College is a public school ( fee-charging boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18) in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The school opened in 1841 as a Church of England foundation and is known for its outstanding linguis ...

and the

Royal Naval College Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, ...

at Dartmouth. He spent some time working as a journalist in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

before moving to France. He later recalled writing several unpublished novels during this period, but in a contrasting account stated that he wrote only plays. He joined the

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (, also known simply as , "the Legion") is a corps of the French Army created to allow List of militaries that recruit foreigners, foreign nationals into French service. The Legion was founded in 1831 and today consis ...

at the outbreak of World War II, and was awarded the

Croix de Guerre The (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awarded during World ...

in 1940. His prize-winning first novel, which he began to write while stranded in

Vichy France Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the Battle of France, ...

, ''Running to Paradise'', is a fictionalised account of combat with the Legion and experiences as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

. Subsequently, he served as an officer in the

Special Operations Executive Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local Resistance during World War II, resistance movements during World War II. ...

, parachuting behind enemy lines to work undercover as a saboteur, and, in the rank of captain, served with the

Special Boat Service The Special Boat Service (SBS) is the special forces unit of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. The SBS can trace its origins back to the Second World War when the Army Special Boat Section was formed in 1940. After the Second World War, the Roy ...

on raids in the Mediterranean and the Aegean. He was

mentioned in dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of t ...

in 1945. In addition to novels, he also published two volumes of autobiography, the second left incomplete at the time of his death in a car accident in Spain. Some of his books reflect his war experiences, including his exploits as an officer in the

. He also wrote thrillers which analyse the psychological and spiritual motivations of their protagonists.

Critical reception

The novels were admired by the author

Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...

. A few years after Lodwick's death,

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993) who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his Utopian and dystopian fiction, dy ...

wrote: "He is not afraid of rhetoric, grandiloquence; his knowledge of foreign literature is wide; his mastery of the English language matches Evelyn Waugh's." He warned, nevertheless, that because of his early death he was "in danger of being neglected", and indeed D. J. Taylor has written that in the post-war years Lodwick's "doomy romanticism sat queerly alongside the comic realism of a Waterhouse or an Amis: Lodwick's reputation did not survive the 1960s." He has been described as an "odd-man-out" among his literary contemporaries, and credited with a "picaresque and romantic" imagination.Walter Allen, ''The Modern Novel in Britain and the United States'', E.P. Dutton (1964), page 277

Novels

*Running To Paradise (1943) *Myrmyda: A Novel of the Aegean (1946) (U.S. title: Aegean Adventure) *Peal of Ordnance (1947) *Twenty East of Greenwich; or, A Barnum Among The Robespierres (1947) *Brother Death (1948) *Something in the Heart (1948) *Just A Song at Twilight (1949) *Stamp Me Mortal (1950) *First Steps Inside The Zoo (1950) (U.S. title: The Man Dormant) *The Cradle of Neptune (1951) *Love Bade Me Welcome (1952) *Somewhere A Voice Is Calling (1953) *The Butterfly Net (1954) *The Starless Night (1955) *Contagion To This World (1956) *Equator (1957) *The Moon Through A Dusty Window (1960)

Autobiography

*Bid The Soldiers Shoot (1958) *The Asparagus Trench: An Autobiographical Beginning (1960)

Other works

*The Filibusters:The Story of the Special Boat Service (1947) (re-issued as Raiders from the Sea) *The Forbidden Coast: The Story of a Journey To Rio De Oro (1956) *(With D.H. Young) Gulbenkian: An Interpretation of Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian (1958)

References