Description
Pioneering human rights campaigner, patriot, romantic, traitor, LGBTQ+ martyr: this is the story of Roger Casement, one of the 20th century's most complex and compelling figures.
'A book of met iculous sensitivity and research' TELEGRAPH
'Extraordinary' THE TIMES
'Superbly written, genuinely exciting' ANDREW ROBERTS
'Outstanding' JOHN PRESTON
In 1904, Casement became internationally celebrated for unearthing the grotesque violence of the Belgian Congo. Soon after he won even greater renown and a knighthood for his humanitarian work deep in the Amazon jungle.
But his internal fault lines ran deep: neither fully Irish nor English, baptised both Protestant and Catholic, desperate for love but forbidden intimacy, betrayed in his only significant relationship, he was of the English diplomatic establishment yet an outsider who fought for Irish nationhood. His final act in wartime Berlin - a doomed scheme to promote an invasion of Ireland - overwhelmed him. And while his subsequent trial for treason brought him some resolution, it also took him to an unmarked prison grave.
Casement was a contradictory figure made fallible by contemporary mores and his own unexamined emotions. Only decades later did an Irish state funeral finally assert his nobility above his notoriety - and only now can we fully understand his surprisingly modern and deeply relevant life and legacy.
'In Roland Philipps [Casement] has found the biographer he deserves' MICHELA WRONG, author of Do Not Disturb
'Vivid, poignant and hugely moving' HENRY HEMMING, author of Our Man in New York
**SHORTLISTED FOR HISTORY RECLAIMED'S HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024**
About the Author
ROLAND PHILIPPS was a leading publisher for many years. A Spy Named Orphan, his first book, arose from lifelong connections to Donald Maclean and his story. It was shortlisted for the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize 2018, was a Daily Mail Book of the Year and received widespread critical acclaim. His second book, Victoire, was published by The Bodley Head in 2021.
Reviews
Casement is the Odysseus of Roland Philipp's epic, Broken Archangel, and Philipps is a worthy chronicler. It is a book of meticulous sensitivity and research ... It is a model, in other words, for how to write a biography of a gay person who lived before widespread acceptance * Daily Telegraph *
Phillips is sympathetic to his subject and a careful chronicler of diplomatic and intelligence intrigues ... he makes a persuasive case that Casement was a fractured personality who embraced causes to fill an emotional void * Guardian *
[An] extraordinary biography ... Philipps [is] an accomplished biographer with a knack for getting under the skin of his subjects ... There's a wonderful immediacy to this portrait, as if Casement sits in the room with us, discussing his life, revealing his secrets * The Times *
Remarkable ... Broken Archangel is an exceptionally well researched and psychologically shrewd portrait of his deeply lonely idealist * Irish Independent *Best Books of 2024* *
The chief virtues of Broken Archangel are its compact size and energetic narrative. For the stranger to Casement's life, this is the book to buy * Times Literary Supplement *
[An] authoritative and impressively clear-sighted biography ... A vivid and striking portrait of this deeply conflicted man * Irish Independent *
Vivid and compelling * Irish Times *
Meticulous and sympathetic ... [a] fine book * Literary Review *
[A] well-researched and engagingly narrated biography ... For those looking for an accurate, fluidly written account of Casement in his own era, this biography is easy to recommend ... [his] treason trial are ably transformed into a page-turning finale * History Today *
Roland Philipps' calm, authoritative and sympathetic new account surely comes close to being definitive * The Tablet *
This minutely researched, superbly written and genuinely exciting biography explores and ultimately convincingly explains the historical conundrum that was Sir Roger Casement. I can't remember turning the pages of a non-fiction book so eagerly to find out what happened next, secure in the knowledge that with Roland Philipps I was in the hands of a master-storyteller * Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill *
One of the many outstanding things about this book is that Philipps has managed to yoke together the extraordinarily disparate sides of Roger Casement's character into a comprehensible whole. In doing so, he has rescued him from the ignominy to which he has been unjustly consigned. * John Preston, author of A Very English Scandal *
Patriot, human rights campaigner, knight of the realm, traitor. Roger Casement was a complex,
appealing, deeply flawed man. In Roland Philipps, he has found the biographer he deserves. This meticulous, sympathetic, elegantly-written account gives one of the 20th century's most controversial and tragic players the attention he deserves
A superb portrait of an enigma. Roland Philipps has produced a masterful biography, full of compassion and verve. In bringing Casement to life, he has resurrected a figure who deserves to be known as the first modern human rights campaigner, one who saved countless lives and gave voice to those who could not be heard, before being undone by some of his deepest and innermost divisions. This is a vivid, poignant and hugely moving account of an extraordinary life * Henry Hemming, author of Agents of Influence *
Roland Philipps's comprehensive, perceptive and sympathetic biography does full justice to Casement's odyssey from dysfunctional Ulster boyhood, through imperial service campaigning for exploited native workers, to his eventual execution as a nationalist revolutionary. It is a rich and compulsively readable treatment of the most extraordinary of Irish lives * Roy Foster, Emeritus Professor of Irish History, University of Oxford *
Book Information
ISBN 9781847927071
Author Roland Philipps
Format Hardback
Page Count 400
Imprint The Bodley Head Ltd
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 659g
Dimensions(mm) 242mm * 163mm * 40mm
