Christopher Wood, a beautiful young Englishman, decided to be the greatest painter the world had seen. He went to Paris in 1921 at the age of 19. By day he worked at his studies, by night he attended the parties of the beau monde. He knew Picasso, worked for Diaghilev and was a friend of Cocteau. In the last months of his 29-year-life, he fought a ravening opium addiction to succeed in claiming a place in the history of English painting.
Richard Hillary, confident, handsome and argumentative, flew Spitfires in the Battle of Britain before being shot down and horribly burned. He underwent several operations by the legendary plastic surgeon, A. H. McIndor. His account of his experiences, The Last Enemy,made him famous, but not happy. He begged to be allowed to return to flying, and died mysteriously in a night training operation, aged 23.
Jeremy Wolfenden was born in 1934, the son of Jack, later Lord Wolfenden. Charming, generous and witty, he was Moby common consent the cleverest Englishman of his generation, but left All Souls to become a hack reporter. At the height of the Cold War, he was sent by the Daily Telegraph to Moscow. Here his louche private life made him the plaything of the intelligence services. A terrifying sequence of events ended in Washington, where he died at the age of 31.
