A Late Education: Episodes in a Life

Rating:
Summary: A very fine memoir
Review: Alan Moorehead was a war correspondent of WW2 and since authored a number of very fine documentary works, including the White Nile, Gallipoli, and many more. In this book he recounts episodes from his fascinating vocation, mostly from around WW2, but the book is also a heartfelt memoir of a long relationship with a dear friend and colleague. The stories include some fine commentary his journalistic approach, and give a glimpse of his fantastic writing career, developing from a mildly uninspired Australian schoolboy into one of the finest documentary authors of the 20th century.

Alan Moorehead has the uncanny ability to keep the reader's eyes glued to the pages. He is simply enormously satisfying and enjoyable to read. He must have been a person of great compassion and intelligence, and I imagine him being moved by a unflinching desire to search for and faithfully report the truth.

Rating:
Summary: Uncategorisable account of friendship and war
Review: I got into Alan Moorehead by picking up an old Penguin edition of A Late Education second-hand at South Melbourne market. Since then, I've read more, and it seems to me that Moorehead is one of the great prose stylists of the 20th Century. The Australian Moorehead was a war correspondent in Europe during the Spanish Civil War and WWII. This is an account of Moorehead's friendship with another young war correspondent, Alex Clifford, throughout the North African and Western European campaigns, and after the war, up to Clifford's untimely early death. It is a fascinating portrait of young journalists thrown into adventure and danger, and of a unique friendship that grew as a result. As such, it's a kind of mix of The English Patient and Salvador - and very well written.

Rating:
Summary: A great experience.
Review: To the other glowing reviews I can only add that it's worthwhile for the piece about Hemingway alone. The final chapter was emotionally wrenching and unforgettable