Julian Rathbone

Julian Christopher Rathbone (10 February 1935 – 28 February 2008) was an English novelist.

Life Julian Rathbone was born in 1935 in Blackheath, south London. The son of Christopher and Decima Rathbone, he was a member of the Rathbone family. He attended Clayesmore School and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was a contemporary of Bamber Gascoigne. At Cambridge he took tutorials with FR Leavis, for whom, without having ever been what might be described as a 'Leavisite', he retained respect.

After university Rathbone lived in Turkey for three years, making a living by teaching English. While in Turkey he heard that his father had been killed in a road accident at the age of sixty, an event to which Rathbone would return when himself the same age, in Blame Hitler. On his return to England jobs in various London schools were followed by the post of Head of English at the comprehensive school in Bognor Regis, West Sussex.

Having originally aspired to be an actor or a painter, Rathbone had also taken up writing and by the end of the 1960s had had three novels published, all set in Turkey and informed by his knowledge of the country. In 1973 Rathbone gave up teaching and left for Spain with the woman who would become his wife and lifelong companion, determined to make his living by writing.

Back in England and after some financially lean years Rathbone found his tenacity beginning to pay off. Booker Prize short-listings in 1976 and 1979 brought critical recognition, and although major commercial success remained elusive Rathbone's work appeared regularly, gaining a loyal readership and increasing popularity both at home and abroad. His novels continued to display interests and talents across several genres, from mainstream through thrillers to historical fiction. His novel of 1066, The Last English King, published 1997, achieved considerable commercial success and has been optioned for film several times without having yet made it to the screen. As a writer of non-fiction Rathbone made a lasting and original contribution to Wellington and Peninsular War studies with his Wellington's War, 1984.

Fiction

Rathbone wrote in different genres and "refused to be pigeonholed ... his output included crime novels, eco-thrillers, future fiction, film scripts and quirky historical narratives, and he also edited a fine non-fiction work about the Duke of Wellington".

Politics Rathbone was a man of what might be called the classic Left. After public school and Cambridge, three years in Turkey told him all he needed to know about poverty and the next decade and a half of teaching in British secondary schools, made him expert in the class system of his country. His politics were those of tolerance and libertarianism, with an innate distrust of self-serving hierarchies and a cynicism towards power-structures and their manipulation of the world, in particular the world of the helpless.

In his fiction, much influenced by Greene, he always made social and historical context part of the weave of the narrative. Twenty years ago, in Zdt and The Pandora Option, he wrote on food as a new weapon in the armoury of the superpowers and in the early 1990s (Sand Blind), with the capacity of those same superpowers to fabricate wars in the interests of their technologies and consumer needs. In Trajectories (1998) he presents a nightmare vision of Britain in 2035, which seems more recognisable and likely with every year that passes.

Over a writing career of forty years, during which the world might be said to have changed out of recognition, it is notable how few of Rathbone's preoccupations and perceptions have dated, while many have been prescient and remain as relevant as they ever were. In his latest book The Mutiny, dealing with the Indian rising against British rule in 1857, the same commitment to clarity of vision is evident, an equal openness to all experiences and forces involved in the event, which continues unashamedly to put Rathbone in the line of the great novelists of the 19th century. The critic who took Rathbone to task, for appearing to claim a superiority of approach to the professional historian, in dealing with such contentious historical material, was raising a question which Rathbone's career, and The Mutiny, was dedicated to answering.

Non-fiction For a man of wide intellectual interests Rathbone produced relatively little outside his long list of novels. Much travelled, and loving foreign places, he always aspired to produce volumes of travel writing, but nothing in this direction ever came to fruition commercially. His one non-fictional publication was Wellington's War (1984), product of a fascination with Wellington which dated back to schooldays. Following within fifteen years of Elizabeth Longford's two-volume biography, which re-established Wellington as a subject for serious study, Rathbone's book is a radical and original departure from the normal run of biographical accounts. Based on detailed research into both Wellington's collected correspondence and the battlefields of the Peninsular War, it counterpoints extracts from the letters with Rathbone's own elucidations and comments. As well as uniquely conveying the immediacy of events through Wellington's thought-processes and human voice, Wellington's War does more than any other book on the subject to illustrate the dimension and brilliance of Wellington's genius. The Duke himself has a habit of cropping up in various of Rathbone's fictions, notably in Joseph and A Very English Agent and, more hauntingly, in Blame Hitler, the novel in which Rathbone writes about his own father. Rathbone described his own interest in Wellington as "probably Oedipal", and the Duke as "the ultimate father-figure". Wellington's War remains unique not only in Rathbone's own work but also in the growing contemporary literature on Wellington.

Works Co-Authored Non-Fiction Novel The Princess A Nun! (last third only – completing book by Hugh Ross Williamson): Michael Joseph, 1978

Series Inspector Jan Argand Trilogy The Euro-Killers: Michael Joseph, 1979 Base Case: Michael Joseph, 1981 Watching the Detectives: Michael Joseph, 1983

Renate Fechter Duology Accidents Will Happen: Serpent's Tail, 1995 Brandenburg Concerto: Serpent's Tail, 1998

Chris Shovelin Duology Homage: Allison and Busby, 2001 As Bad as it Gets: Allison and Busby, 2003

Standalone Novels Diamonds Bid: Michael Joseph, 1967 Hand Out: Michael Joseph, 1968 With My Knives I Know I'm Good: Michael Joseph, 1969 Trip Trap: Michael Joseph, 1972 Kill Cure: Michael Joseph, 1975 Bloody Marvellous: Michael Joseph, 1975 King Fisher Lives: Michael Joseph, 1976 (Shortlisted for Booker Prize, 1976) ¡Carnival!: Michael Joseph, 1976 A Raving Monarchist: Michael Joseph, 1977 Joseph: Michael Joseph, 1979 (shortlisted for Booker Prize, 1979) A Last Resort: Michael Joseph, 1980 A Spy of the Old School: Michael Joseph, 1982 Nasty, Very : Michael Joseph, 1984 Wellington's War: Michael Joseph, 1984 Lying in State: Heinemann, 1985 ZDT: Heinemann, 1986 Greenfinger: Penguin, 1987 The Crystal Contract: Heinemann, 1988 The Pandora Option: Heinemann, 1990 Dangerous Games: Heinemann, 1991 Sand Blind: Serpent's Tail, 1993 Intimacy: Victor Gollancz, 1995 Blame Hitler: Victor Gollancz, 1997 The Last English King: Little, Brown, 1997 Trajectories: Victor Gollancz, 1998 Kings of Albion: Little, Brown, 2000 A Very English Agent: Little, Brown, 2002 Birth of a Nation: Little, Brown, 2004 The Mutiny: Little, Brown, 2007

Short Story Collections "Damned Spot" in Past Poisons: Headline, 1998 The Indispensable Julian Rathbone: The Do-Not Press, 2003 - also contains essays