This is something of a rarity: biographies of three young Englishman by a celebrated English novelist...who has his own fatal attraction for readers of fiction...& in one 300 page book. Christopher Wood, an artist...Richard Hillary, a fighter pilot in 1940...& Jeremy Wolfenden...a brilliant misfit in post-war England...all three men with inclinations that defied social respectability...all extraordinarily fated to die, already spent forces of both nature & English individuality...all three self-destructive, desperate & beyond the limits of real understanding...each handsome, heroic-looking...& out of any rational control from other people...each motivated by their own fatal energies.
An absorbing book, full of reality...even as the three fatal Englishmen live in their own unreal universes of the senses...all racing to reach the final acts of their dramatic lives.

Three lives cut short in the bloom of youth in the 30's, 40's and 60's. An artist, a pilot and a journalist (Christopher Wood, Richard Hillary and Jeremy Wolfenden) all brilliant and flawed men that may have achieved so much if they had not contributed to their own demise.

Riveting read about three very diverse boys from Blighty. I absolutely loved this book. Thanks Paolo!

A riveting study of the English psyche through three mysterious and complex men, and the people that surrounded them. Written with compassion and style by Faulks, who brings his talent as a novelist to this original approach to biography. It's often quite moving, and the men he has chosen to analyze are fascinating characters. That everything is true makes this book even more interesting.

Excellent writer and this was 3 biographies of men, none really famous, all of whom died young. I don't normally like biographies but these were interesting.

Stirring stuff.

An interesting idea: to take the lives of three talented but flawed Englishmen, who all died young; to allow them the biography that they never had.

Although well written, and after exhaustive research, this book fails the first test of any biography: we have to know, or at least understand, who we are reading about and why they were so remarkable that someone has taken the trouble to write about them.

The difficulty that I had with this book was that I felt little sympathy for these men. I couldn’t see anything that was particularly “brilliant” about them, and, even if they were, these were lives that were frittered away through self-destructive behaviour.

I was left wondering why Faulks had chosen these three particular men and what he saw that was so noteworthy about them.

I had assumed that, when I reached the end, there would be a link between their stories or at least a message that we can take from their lives but, if there was, I’m afraid that I didn’t see it.

Another beautifully written book by Sebastian Faulks, who poignantly brings to life the short tragic lives of artist Christopher Wood, airman Richard Hillary and spy Jeremy Wolfenden.

Interesting book which is actually three separate biographies of doomed but brilliant (in their own ways) English men. None of the men are connected in any way; never met, different decades, different careers, different lives, but all died young and seemed to represent their generation. I found the writing style quite dry, so didn't really connect enough with the book, but an interesting read nonetheless.

I don't generally read biography - except that by Lytton Strachey, which is just outrageous gossip - but I happened to come across some paintings by Christopher Wood (one of the subjects of The Fatal Englishman) so off I set.

I was gripped at times, bemused at others. I find it hard to empathise with these men who were either supremely talented, fantastically intelligent, extraordinarily good looking, foolishly brave and generally over-indulged. I learned a few facts, but my problem is that I don't think I learned much of relevance. But I'm sure that's my failing.

An interesting biography of three young englishmen who died too young and yet did a lot in their short lives. All met tragic endings. I enjoyed learning about these interesting characters.

I really enjoyed reading these 3 short stories about three short lives.