Secret love life of Graham Greene

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">The tangled and messy love life of Graham Greene, the novelist, is revealed in the final volume of his official biography which portrays him as a voracious "sexual raider" who once listed 47 prostitutes he had slept with.<br /><br />While Greene, regarded as one of the late 20th century''s greatest English writers, remained married for 64 years, the extent of his adultery was extraordinary.<br /><br />The new book — the third volume of the <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Life of Graham Greene</span> — reveals that as well as having four long-term affairs, he was quite brazen about his relationships with prostitutes.<br /><br />When in 1948, Catherine Walston, his mistress, challenged him about rumours that he paid women for sex, he scribbled down a list of his 47 favourite prostitutes and gave it to her.<br /><br />In the list the women, whom he had procured on the London streets since his marriage in 1927, were given names such as Russian boots, Channel Islands Girl, Blackmail, Bishop Hooper, Black pants, Bond Street French and Caesarian.<br /><br />"Graham simply liked prostitutes," said Sherry."He clearly had a huge sex drive, but he also enjoyed loveless sex without commitment. He liked too the idea of simply leaving the prostitutes with money on the mantelpiece."<br /><br />Greene appointed Sherry as his official biographer before his death in 1991. Sherry recounts that he was even once advised by Greene to visit Panama and the Far East to see the type of prostitutes he preferred. "In the Far East, in particular, he liked call-girls and opium," said Sherry.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><br />Peter Glenville, who directed the 1967 film <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">The Comedians</span>, added: "His sexual stamina always astonished me because it was endless."<br /><br />Greene, a Catholic whose fictional characters often wrestled with their consciences as did the writer himself, was particularly keen on black women. He also, the book reveals, once wrote in a "dream diary" that he fantasised about committing an act of high treason with the queen — a reference to having sex with her.<br /><br />Yet he also needed loving relationships. He had a lengthy affair with Dorothy Glover, a book illustrator, during the second world war before meeting Walston, the woman Sherry calls "the love of his life".<br /><br />The affair with Walston, who was married to Labour MP Harry Walston, lasted until 1960 even though at one stage he was also having another relationship with Anita Bjork, a Swedish actress. He then moved to France in the early 1960s where he took up with Yvonne Cloetta who was to be his companion for 32 years.<br /><br />Greene''s relationship with Walston was pivotal. "During their affair she also would read all the manuscripts of his books and help him with them," said Sherry. She read in advance The End of the Affair based on the menage a trois involving Greene, Harry and Catherine Walston. The book is dedicated to "C", whom we now know is Catherine.<br /><br />(<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">The Sunday Times, London</span>)</div> </div>