Gerald Hanley (17 February 1916 – 7 September 1992)Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, The Independent, 3 October 1992. was an Irish novelist and travel writer and was born in Liverpool of Irish parents. Hanley's novels reflect his experiences of living in Africa, Burma and the Indian sub-continent, as well as his life as a soldier. His first book, Monsoon Victory was published in 1946, and his last novel, Noble Descents in 1982.

Biography

Hanley, born on 17 February 1916 in Liverpool (not County Cork, Ireland, as he claimed), was the youngest of a large, Irish-Liverpudleian Catholic family. Both his working-class parents were from Ireland, his father Edward from Dublin, his mother Bridget from Cobh, County Cork, but were married in Liverpool in 1891.Chris Gostick, "Extra Material on James Hanley's Boy" from the OneWorld Classics edition of Boy (2007). His father Edward was a seaman, especially on Cunard liners, but he also sometimes worked on shore.Crew agreements, various archives.

In 1934 Gerald went to East Africa, where he worked on a farm in Kenya until the war in 1939.A Dictionary of Irish Biography, ed. Henry Boylan (1998). This was arranged with the help of his brother James' friend John Cowper Powys, whose brother William farmed in Kenya.John Cowper Powys, 1935 Diary, ms. National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Joining the King's African Rifles of the British army on the outbreak of the Second World War, Hanley served in Somalia and in Burma, where Monsoon Victory (1946) is set."Obituary", New York Times 25 September 1992. Prior to this he had had a few short stories published.Irishwriters online. While he published a number of novels he also wrote radio plays for the BBC as well as some film scripts, most notably The Blue Max (1966).Irishwriters online. He was also one of several script writers for a life of Gandhi (1964). Parts of his script were used for the Richard Attenborough film Gandhi (see Attenborough's book on the subject).The Times, 29 November 1982; pg. 11; see also "Gandhi's Life As A Film", The Times 16 December 1964; pg. 7.

In 1950, Hanley went to the Punjab in India,"Obituary", New York Times. and he also lived in Srinagar, Pakistan,Dust jacket Drinkers of Darkness. where he was married to Asha Weymiss, a Brahmin woman who had been adopted as a child by an English woman working in India. He settled in County Wicklow, Ireland, in 1954 with his first wife, Diana Fittall (some sources give a later date).A Dictionary of Irish Biograph says the 1980s; "Obituary, The New York Times of 25 September 1992, says the 1960s. He is survived by 7 children with Diana and two with Asha.

His brother was the novelist and playwright James Hanley, while the American novelist and playwright William Hanley was his nephew. William's sister Ellen Hanley was a successful Broadway actress. Gerald Hanley died on 7 September 1992, in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland.

Works Gerald Hanley's novels reflect his experiences of living in Africa, both Kenya and Somalia, as well as in Burma and the Indian sub-continent, and of seeing the "influence of the British in the most distant parts of the world",Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, The Independent 3 October 1992. as well as his life as a soldier.

Hanley's first book, Monsoon Victory (1946), is an account of the 1944 Burma campaign, from the point of view of a war correspondent. The Consul at Sunset (1951), The Year of the Lion (1953) and Drinkers of Darkness (1955) have for their background the life of expatriates in Kenya, as the British Empire declines.A Dictionary of Irish Biography. Warriors and Strangers (1971), a mixture of autobiography and travel writing, again has Africa as its setting.

Not all Gerald Hanley's novels, however, deal with war and empire. For example, Without Love is set in present-day Barcelona, and its protagonist is the seedy son of a London-Irish family, who is an executioner for Russia's secret police.Time, 19 August 1957.

The Journey Homeward (1961), along with Hanley's last novel, Noble Descents (1982), are both set in India. Henry Hathaway's 1967 movie The Last Safari, starring Stewart Granger and Gabriella Licudi, was based on Gilligan's Last Elephant. Noble Descents is set six years after independence, and concerns a friendship between an Indian maharajah and an Englishman.Sinclair-Stevenson.

Reputation An abridged version of The Year of the Lion was broadcast by the BBC, in twelve parts, in 1984.The Times, 25 June 1984. Admired by HemingwayA Dictionary of Irish Biography. and compared to Conrad, Gerald Hanley, overshadowed by both Paul Scott and, to a lesser degree, his brother James Hanley, failed to achieve any lasting fame.Sinclair-Stevenson Sinclair-Stevenson, in his obituary, suggests that the success of The Consul at Sunset, in 1951, was a factor in this: "Nothing after seemed to them to indicate progress or a new dimension." His stance against colonialism certainly didn't help his cause at the time.

Bibliography Monsoon Victory. Collins, London, 1946 The Consul at Sunset. Collins, London, 1951 The Year of the Lion. Collins, London, 1953 Drinkers of Darkness. Collins, London,1955 Without Love. Collins, London, 1957 The Journey Homeward. Collins, London, 1961 "A Departure", The London Magazine, Vol. 1 No. 3, June 1961 A Voice from the Top. A dialogue for Radio (broadcast July 1961)The Times, 5 July 1961. Gilligan's Last Elephant. Collins, London, 1962 See You in Yasukuni. Collins, London, 1969 Warriors and Strangers. Hamish Hamilton, London, 1971 (The first half, Warriors, was reprinted separately by Eland in 1993; new edition 2004) Noble Descents. Hamish Hamilton, London, 1982

References