Seeds of Fiction: Graham Greene's Adventures in Haiti and Central Amercia, 1954-1983

This is a perfect match of subject and author. Bernie Diederich has captured the passion for journalism and politics that made his friend Graham Greene such a powerful novelist –Walter Issacson, author of Steve Jobs, The Exclusive Biography

This fascinating new book about one of the most adventurous and well-travelled of all 20th-century novelists isn t by some closeted academic but a sharp-eyed fellow-adventurer. Bernard Diederich is a famous roving reporter for Time magazine who accompanied Graham Greene on many of his travels in Haiti and Central America from the 1960s onwards. Diederich is an extraordinary man. Born in New Zealand, he ran away from home at 16 to work on a four-master, served in the Pacific during the second world war, wrote journalism from Haiti under Papa Doc Duvalier (who had him imprisoned), and later from Nicaragua and El Salvador during the tormented 1980s. Now in his eighties, he has recorded his journeys with Greene for posterity, and the result is a wonderful collection of anecdotes and insights about one of our greatest and most inscrutable writers. –Christopher Hart, Sunday Times

An interesting new book –James Naughtie, BBC Radio 4 Today Programme

Diederich reveals a guarded, occasionally irascible but also endlessly inquisitive man who relished the challenges of travel (as long as there were decent rum punches involved), and whose deep empathy with suffering and sharp eye for detail suffused his novels with poignant truth –Siobhan Murphy, Metro

This is a book fifty years in the making…anyone interested in the life and work of Greene will find it full of new insights –Jon M. Sweeney, America

One of the finest books yet written on Greene a triumph of tender recollection and devotion. –Ian Thomson, The Spectator

A finely crafted reflection. . . Graham’s exuberance is captured thrillingly –Publishers Weekly

In making little or no concession to literary theory, and without any pretence at extended intimacy, it is one of the best books you’ll read about what makes a writer tick –Brian Morton, The Tablet

Diederich delivers a Greene with a human factor –Roger Lowenstein, Wall Street Journal

Seeds of Fiction is a great read if you are interested in Graham Greene and Central America –Nigel Potter, The Spokesman

Seeds of Fiction is a great read if you are interested in Graham Greene and Central America –Nigel Potter, The Spokesman

Seeds of Fiction provides an intimate portrayal of one of the great novelists of the twentieth century as well as a fascinating glimpse into a heretofore-obscure period of his life –World Literature Today