Julian Christopher Rathbone (10 February 1935 – 28 February 2008) was an English novelist.
Life
Julian Rathbone was born in 1935 in
Blackheath Blackheath may refer to:
Places England
*Blackheath, London, England
** Blackheath railway station
**Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England
*Blackheath, Surrey, England
** Hundred of Blackh ...
, south London. The son of Christopher and Decima Rathbone he was a member of the
Rathbone family
The Rathbone family of Liverpool, England, were a family of nonconformist merchants and ship-owners who were known to engage in philanthropy and public service.
The family origins trace back to Gawsworth, near Macclesfield, where the first Will ...
. He attended
Clayesmore School
Clayesmore School is an independent school for boys and girls, aged 2 – 18 years, in the village of Iwerne Minster, Dorset, England. It is both a day and boarding school and is a member of The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (H ...
and
Magdalene College, Cambridge
Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...
, where he was a contemporary of
Bamber Gascoigne
Arthur Bamber Gascoigne (24 January 1935 – 8 February 2022) was an English television presenter and author. He was the original quizmaster on ''University Challenge'', which initially ran from 1962 to 1987.
Early life and education
Gasco ...
. At Cambridge he took tutorials with
FR Leavis, for whom, without having ever been what might be described as a 'Leavisite', he retained an abiding respect.
After university Rathbone lived in
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
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
Bognor Regis (), sometimes simply known as Bognor (), is a town and seaside resort in West Sussex on the south coast of England, south-west of London, west of Brighton, south-east of Chichester and east of Portsmouth. Other nearby towns ...
, 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 a background of which he had intimate knowledge. In 1973 Rathbone finally gave up teaching and left for Spain with the woman who would become his wife and lifelong companion, determined from then on 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
The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...
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
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
and
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...
studies with his ''
Wellington's War'', 1984.
Fiction
Various threads run through Rathbone's novels over their forty-year span. Standing firmly in the 19th Century tradition with its belief in the primacy of the writer's imagination and its consequent freedom to explore human life in all its aspects, Rathbone always refused to be tied to a genre, time or place or character in undertaking this exploration. An ostensible thriller may be just as much a study of relationships, an apparently mainstream novel an investigation of crime, a work of historical fiction a meditation on contemporary issues.
In blurring and blending genres in this way for three decades or more, when the book market became obsessed with the typecasting and branding of books and their authors, Rathbone can be seen as having explored and questioned the nature of genre, its scope and limitations. Wherever the definitions of a genre threatened to restrict his enquiry into the human condition, Rathbone never hesitated to push it into wider territory. In a climate of increasing specialisation expected of novelists by commercial publishers, this was an unfashionable approach to take, with arguably a great commercial cost as Rathbone went his own way and refused to seek or accept any label or badge of identification, which might increase sales but confine his activities as a writer.
Characters
Rathbone created four characters who appear in more than one book, permitting a certain grouping, while never taking over the heterogeneous spirit of his work or deflecting him from the pursuit of wider fictional interests. First was Inspector Jan Argand (''
The Euro-Killers'', ''
Base Case'', ''
Watching The Detectives''). Then the "Joseph" of ''
Joseph
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
'' (
Booker nomination 1979) makes his reappearance as Charlie Boylan in ''
A Very English Agent'' and later as Eddie Bosham in ''
Birth of a Nation'', as Rathbone follows the thread of events from the war in the Peninsula, through the world of German exiles taking refuge in early Victorian London and on to the early years of the modern USA. One of his possible descendants, Charlie Bosham, is the "hero" of ''Nasty, Very''. Two books for
Serpent's Tail
Serpent's Tail is London-based independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Pete Ayrton. It specialises in publishing work in translation, particularly European crime fiction. In January 2007, it was bought by a British publisher Profile Books ...
, ''
Accidents Will Happen
"Accidents Will Happen" is a song written by Elvis Costello and performed by Elvis Costello and the Attractions. It first appeared on the 1979 album '' Armed Forces''. Costello wrote the song about his many infidelities during this period of h ...
'' and ''
Brandenburg Concerto
The ''Brandenburg Concertos'' by Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 1046–1051), are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, MacDonogh, Giles. ''Frederick the Great: A Life in Dee ...
'', focused on Renate Fechter, head of a German squad of Eco-police. Then Rathbone created a British private investigator, Chris Shovelin, for the two recent books ''
Homage
Homage (Old English) or Hommage (French) may refer to:
History
*Homage (feudal) /ˈhɒmɪdʒ/, the medieval oath of allegiance
*Commendation ceremony, medieval homage ceremony Arts
*Homage (arts) /oʊˈmɑʒ/, an allusion or imitation by one arti ...
'' and ''
As Bad As It Gets'' for
Allison and Busby
Allison & Busby (A & B) is a publishing house based in London established by Clive Allison and Margaret Busby in 1967. The company has built up a reputation as a leading independent publisher.
Background
Launching as a publishing company in May ...
. Although diverse and strong characters, none of the four ever seemed likely to take over the oeuvre. Rathbone remained committed to diversity of inspiration rather than the formulaic approach to which concentration on a single character can lead.
Influences
Rathbone never shared the cultural aridity of Leavis but he was a long-term presence in the novelist's background as a man who insisted on the power and importance of imaginative literature. In ''
A Last Resort'', written around the time of Leavis's death and giving a brilliant portrayal of a Britain making itself ripe for
Thatcherism
Thatcherism is a form of British conservative ideology named after Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher that relates to not just her political platform and particular policies but also her personal character and general style of manag ...
, the ferocious Cambridge don makes a brief appearance in the intellectual life of a gifted English student, at a school not unlike the one Rathbone had taught in until a few years previously.
As a writer, perhaps the nearest Rathbone came to an acknowledged antecedent was
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
, whose weaving of the thriller and mainstream strands of fiction, together with the exploration of wider spiritual and political matters, often set in foreign locations, clearly struck many chords both with Rathbone's vocational subject-matter and belief in the novelist's ability to address human life on as broad a front as he likes, with the finished work of fiction as the only credential he needs. Greene remained an icon with Rathbone throughout his writing life, as did the different figure of
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
, object of Rathbone's greatest reverence, although rarely exercising any overt influence in his writing. ''
A Last Resort'' is probably the most Joycean of Rathbone's books, in its use of accumulation of mundane detail to create an almost surreal portrait of a country whose identity is dissolving in front of its face. To Joyce, Rathbone paid the ultimate compliment of constantly rereading without seeking to imitate.
In addition to Greene and Joyce, Rathbone acknowledged
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...
,
Eric Ambler
Eric Clifford Ambler OBE (28 June 1909 – 22 October 1998) was an English author of thrillers, in particular spy novels, who introduced a new realism to the genre. Also working as a screenwriter, Ambler used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for book ...
and
Friedrich Durrenmatt as influences upon his writing.
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
A trajectory or flight path is the path that an object with mass in motion follows through space as a function of time. In classical mechanics, a trajectory is defined by Hamiltonian mechanics via canonical coordinates; hence, a complete traj ...
'' (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
Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford, (''née'' Harman; 30 August 1906 – 23 October 2002), better known as Elizabeth Longford, was a British historian. She was a member of the Royal Society of Literature and was on the board of trustees ...
'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
The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...
, 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
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
'' 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
*''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
The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...
, 1976)
*''¡Carnival!'': Michael Joseph, 1976
*''A Raving Monarchist'': Michael Joseph, 1977
*''The Princess A Nun!'' (last third only – completing book by
Hugh Ross Williamson
Hugh Ross Williamson (1901–1978) was a prolific British popular historian, and a dramatist. Starting from a career in the literary world, and having a Nonconformist background, he became an Anglican priest in 1943.Joseph Pearce, ''Literary Co ...
): Michael Joseph, 1978
*''Joseph'': Michael Joseph, 1979 (shortlisted for
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...
, 1979)
*''The Euro-Killers'': Michael Joseph, 1979
*''A Last Resort'': Michael Joseph, 1980
*''Base Case'': Michael Joseph, 1981
*''A Spy of the Old School'': Michael Joseph, 1982
*''Watching the Detectives'': Michael Joseph, 1983
*''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
*''Accidents Will Happen'': Serpent's Tail, 1995
*''Intimacy'': Victor Gollancz, 1995
*''Blame Hitler'': Victor Gollancz, 1997
*''
The Last English King'': Little, Brown, 1997
*''Brandenburg Concerto'': Serpent's Tail, 1998
*''Trajectories'': Victor Gollancz, 1998
*"Damned Spot" in ''
Past Poisons
''Past Poisons: An Ellis Peters Memorial Anthology of Historical Crime'' is a 1998 British anthology of historical mystery short stories and novellas, edited by Maxim Jakubowski. The collection is named for novelist Ellis Peters, whose '' Cadfae ...
'':
Headline
The headline or heading is the text indicating the content or nature of the article below it, typically by providing a form of brief summary of its contents.
The large type ''front page headline'' did not come into use until the late 19th centur ...
, 1998
*''Kings of Albion'': Little, Brown, 2000
*''Homage'': Allison and Busby, 2001
*''A Very English Agent'': Little, Brown, 2002
*''As Bad as it Gets'': Allison and Busby, 2003
*''The Indispensable Julian Rathbone'': The Do-Not Press, 2003
*''Birth of a Nation'': Little, Brown, 2004
*''The Mutiny'': Little, Brown, 2007
References
External links
Obituary in ''The Times'', 7 March 2008Obituary in ''The Guardian'', 4 March 2008
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rathbone, Julian
Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge
1935 births
2008 deaths
People from Bognor Regis
Writers of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages
English male novelists
20th-century English novelists
People educated at Clayesmore School
20th-century English male writers