Alex.liberto

June began with the death of two literary giants: Edmund White (died June 3, 2025 at 85) and Frederick Forsyth (died June 9,2025 at 86). Our literary editor, Alex Liberto, had met and corresponded with the former and has written this touching tribute.

In a world recovering from the devastation of war, how did English literature find its footing? Here are the most pivotal figures and movements that reshaped the post-war literary landscape.

Exploring social injustice and generation gap in post-war Britain drama through the works of John Osborne and other playwrights of the Angry Young Men movement.

Uncovering the hidden gems of 20th century British drama.

The Age of Self-Discovery was a milestone for the English poetry and novel that opened the doors for the intellectual creativity and innovation of 20th-century writers.

David Herbert Lawrence has captivated the imagination with his rich and substantial prose, painting a clear picture of reality with spontaneous language.

Virginia Woolf and her tumultuous psychological hardships should be considered an essential cornerstone of modernist fiction.

Doris Lessing, a female writer who weighed in on the feminist front and who wrote about persecution, intolerance and injustice.

Edward Morgan Forster: his life and his works.

Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918) did not sing the praises of war; he reflected on its philosophical and poetical impact through symbolism and imagery.

Born in 1895 L.P Hartley was an English poet and author of many notable works including The Go-Between and The Eustace and Hilda trilogy. Learn more about his life and works.

After our overview of post-war British drama with a survey of the Theatre of the Absurd, let us now look at another important literary movement that developed after the end of World War II. The end of the war left a sense of discontent and disillusionment, especially with the younger generation. As society developed into a more affluent capitalistic and class-conscious structure, the younger generation became aware that the poorer classes were being exploited and this prompted them to voice their anger.

In the last issue we saw how Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter developed a new drama that was characterized by features that had nothing in common with the prevailing criteria of the time: the Theatre of the Absurd. In this issue we shall take a closer look at Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter, one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career spanning over more than 50 years.

In the last issue we saw how some 20th century writers envisioned a dystopian future in reaction to the two world wars and to the dwindling human values. Protesting against society and the situation of man, but in a different way, were the giants of the Theatre of the Absurd Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter.

The dystopian novel developed during the 20th century when the reality of humanity’s volatile condition became evident after both the first and second world wars. The word, dystopia, refers to Utopia, the fictitious name of an ideal country, coined by Thomas More in his famous book Libellus … de optimo reipublicae statu deque nova Insula Utopia (1516). It was designed as a political, social and religious system which was not supposed to be reflected in reality, but proposed as an ideal model. Utopia was later seen as the panacea for the future Many 19th-century scholars looked at a utopian future as the culmination of the forces of historical evolution.

The situation that plagued the world after World War One was one of callous apathy and emotional aridity. My last article on T.

T.S Eliot is perhaps the best example of the modern metaphysical poet. Like the 17th century poet, John Donne, Eliot veered from the ethereal world of romance and idealisation, to head directly towards a concrete reality through conceits and extended metaphors.

In today’s world besieged by isolationism, America First, Britain First, white supremacy, cyber bullying, homophobia, racism, vaccine tug-of-war, colonialist withdrawal symptoms (… shall I go on?) and the like, never before have the words of John Donne been more relevant; “No man is an island…”. In the age of Brexit, the very notion that every man is part of a greater humanity is a powerful assertion. However, the profound conviction that ‘every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main’ has a far more universal metaphorical significance; a spiritual and existential significance.

Family background John Donne was born in London in 1572 to a relatively wealthy family. His father, who died when Donne was only four, was a successful tradesman and his mother, Elizabeth, was the daughter of the writer John Heywood. Both parents were Roman Catholics and were in obvious difficulty to come to terms with the newly established Church of England. Donne’s family, especially on his mother’s side, were persecuted for being Roman Catholics and for refusing to swear the Oath of Supremacy which acknowledged the English monarch as the Head of the Church of England. This is the general atmosphere in which John Donne was brought up. As a child he was educated privately by Catholic tutors and at the age of twelve he was sent to Oxford University. The reason for attending Oxford at such a young age was due to the fact that all students had to pledge allegiance to the Queen and therefore to the Church of England by the age of sixteen. Donne’s mother was naturally hoping that her son would obtain a degree before that age. However this did not happen and the young student was eventually compelled to leave Oxford without a degree.

We cannot speak of a literary career for Samuel Pepys (1633 -1703), since he wrote predominantly for his own private reading. He is known for his diary which was written in a special code (Shelton’s system of tachygraphy) and was not meant to have been deciphered and read by others. This naturally makes his account of life during the Restoration period free from prejudice and all the more authentic.

Today I’d like to start a short cycle on love with a work about the “love that dare not speak its name”; the love between two men. Maurice was written by E.

Coleridge, like Wordsworth, loved nature and together they enjoyed walking in the Lake District, in the heart of the natural surroundings. However, Coleridge also loved the supernatural.

Popular leaders nowadays seem to owe their success to noise, aggression and self-aggrandisement. I call this the Cassius Clay syndrome.