A Very English Hero: The Making of Frank Thompson

by Peter Conradi

Publisher:

Bloomsbury Publishing

, 2012

Overview

An untold story of love, idealism and courage in the Second World War

’A very moving account of the all-too-brief life of a warrior-poet’ Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad

’An elegy for a lost generation, and a fascinating social and political history of a peculiar period in our recent past ... it’s impossible to put down Conradi’s impressive and moving account of Thompson’s life without a feeling of regret.’ Mail on Sunday

Modest, handsome and a fine poet, eccentric Englishman Frank Thompson made an unlikely soldier.

Brother of E. P. Thompson and lover of Iris Murdoch, Frank was an intellectual idealist, a rare combination of brilliant mind and enormous heart. Of his wartime experiences, Frank wrote prodigiously. His letters, diaries and poetry still read fresh and intimate today - and it is from these that Peter J. Conradi brings vividly to life a brilliantly attractive and courageous personality.

Aged just twenty-three, Frank was captured, tortured and executed in Bulgaria. A soldier of principle and integrity, he fought a poet’s war; a very English hero from a very different era.

Key Features

Peter J. Conradi is the author of the authorised biography of Dame Iris Murdoch, and it was in the writing of that book that he first encountered Frank Thompson
This is the first biography to be written of Frank Thompson, a significant SOE figure, a book for anyone with an interest in Balkan history and politics, SOE and the Communist Party
Conradi’s work on Iris Murdoch was widely acclaimed and named as a Book of the Year in the major papers by, among others, John Updike, P. D. James, Margaret Drabble and Hilary Spurling

Praise for A Very English Hero

A very moving account of the all-too-brief life of a warrior-poet

An elegy for a lost generation, and a fascinating social and political history of a peculiar period in our recent past ... it’s impossible to put down Conradi’s impressive and moving account of Thompson’s life without a feeling of regret. ****

Inspiring ... Intensely absorbing, steeped in human interest and peppered with outlandish characters

[An] excellent, absorbing biography ... Mr Conradi tells the true story, movingly and well ... He convincingly portrays an attractive, brilliant and courageous personality, an intellectual with a heart who loved laughter, an idealist who merits the title of this book

[A] magnificent and tragic biography

Impeccably researched ... A fine description of the biographer’s role, and generous quotations from Frank Thompson’s letter and poems recreate his bulky, restless, energetic presence. But it is Conradi’s own more subtle presence that locks the reader into the narrative ... A pensive, moving and very personal book

Moving and gripping, told with great lucidity and sympathy ... a story of heroic times and hopes

Superb

Product Details

• Title: A Very English Hero: The Making of Frank Thompson
• Author: Peter Conradi
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Print Publication Date: 2012
• Logos Release Date: 2024
• Pages: 432
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9781408833315, 9781408830925, 1408830922, 140883331X
• Resource ID: LLS:9781408833315
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T11:45:51Z

About Peter Conradi

Peter Conradi is a British author and journalist. He is currently foreign editor of the Sunday Times. He has previously been a foreign correspondent in Belgium, Switzerland, and the Soviet Union. Conradi’s books include The Red Ripper: Inside the Mind of Russia’s Most Brutal Serial Killer, Mad Vlad: Vladimir Zhirinovsky and the New Russian Nationalism, Hitler’s Piano Player: The Rise and Fall of Ernst Hanfstaengl, and, with coauthor Mark Logue, the bestselling The King’s Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy, the inspiration for the Academy Award–winning film of the same name. His forthcoming book, Who Lost Russia?: How East and West Fell In and Out of Love, will be published in December 2016.