25 Facts About Brian Cleeve

Brian Brendon Talbot Cleeve was a writer, whose published works include twenty-one novels and over a hundred short stories.

Brian Cleeve lived in South Africa during the early years of National Party rule and was expelled from the country because of his opposition to apartheid.

Brian Cleeve developed a model for the spiritual life based on the principle of obedience to the will of God.

Brian Cleeve was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, the second of three sons to Charles Edward Cleeve and his wife Josephine.

When he was two-and-a-half, Brian Cleeve's mother died and his maternal grandparents, Alfred and Gertrude Talbot, took over responsibility for his upbringing.

At age eight, Brian Cleeve was sent as a boarder to Selwyn House in Kent, followed at age 12 by three years at St Edward's School in Oxford.

Brian Cleeve was by nature a free-thinker and he rejected the assumptions and prejudices that were then part and parcel of upper-middle class English life.

Brian Cleeve led an eventful life during the next fifteen years.

In 1945, Brian Cleeve took an Irish passport and came to Ireland where, in the space of three weeks, he met and married Veronica McAdie.

Trevor Huddleston, Brian Cleeve witnessed the conditions in which the black and coloured population had to live in townships such as Sophiatown.

Brian Cleeve became an outspoken critic of Apartheid, and, in 1954, he was branded by the authorities as a 'political intractable' and ordered to leave South Africa.

Brian Cleeve returned to Ireland where he lived for the remainder of his life.

Brian Cleeve started writing poems in his teens, a few of which were published in his school paper, the St Edward's Chronicle.

Brian Cleeve sold nearly 30 to The Saturday Evening Post alone.

Brian Cleeve produced a series of well-received mystery and spy thrillers that did not sacrifice character to plot.

In 1971, Brian Cleeve published Cry of Morning, his most controversial and successful novel up to that point.

Brian Cleeve subsequently achieved even greater commercial success, especially in the United States, with a number of historical novels featuring a strong female character as protagonist.

Brian Cleeve wrote several works of non-fiction, principally the Dictionary of Irish Writers.

Brian Cleeve joined the station as a part-time interviewer on the current affairs programme, Broadsheet.

The series covered all aspects of Irish life and Brian Cleeve won a Jacobs' Award for his contribution.

In January 1966, Telefis Eireann announced that Brian Cleeve was being dropped as presenter of Discovery because his voice was deemed to be "too light in tone".

Brian Cleeve was told by a colleague that his English accent was felt to be similar to that of the "ascendancy class".

Brian Cleeve refused to be subject to the new regime and was moved to other less controversial programmes.

Brian Cleeve continued to write for a small audience of those who contacted him following publication of The House on the Rock.

Brian Cleeve's health deteriorated rapidly following a series of small strokes.