The Knox Brothers

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title The Knox Brothers
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Penelope Fitzgerald
Introduction by Holmes
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:304
Dimensions(mm): Height 198,Width 129
Category/GenreBiographies and autobiography
Family history and tracing ancestors
ISBN/Barcode 9780007118304
ClassificationsDewey:929.20941
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
Imprint Fourth Estate Ltd
Publication Date 14 January 2002
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

This is Penelope Fitzgerald's biography of her remarkable family. "When I was very young I took my uncles for granted, and it never occurred to me that everyone else in the world was not like them." In this book, Penelope Fitzgerald turns her novelist's gaze on the quite extraordinary lives of her father and his three brothers. Within it we see Penelope Fitzgerald exercising her pen before she began her novel-writing career. Edmund Knox, her father, was one of the most successful editors of Punch. Dillwyn, a Cambridge Greek scholar, was the first to crack the Nazi's message decoding system, "Enigma", and in so doing, is estimated to have shortened the Second World War by six months. Wilfred became an Anglo-Catholic priest and an active welfare worker in the East End of London. Ronald, the best known of the four during his lifetime, was Roman Catholic chaplain to Oxford University's student body, as well as preacher, wit, scholar, crime-writer and translator of the Bible. This volume is a homage to a long-forgotten world and an account of the generation straddling the divide between late Victorian and Edwardian life.

Author Biography

Penelope Fitzgerald was one of the most elegant and distinctive voices in British fiction. The author of nine novels, she won the Booker Prize in 1979 for Offshore, and was shortlisted on three other occasions.

Reviews

'A portrait of English intelligence, religion, eccentricity, pig-headedness and wisdom, written with directness and wit.' A.S. Byatt 'A funny, tender, clever book. A study in a lost civilisation... destined to become a twentieth century classic.' Richard Holmes