Interesting insight into the writing of "A Burnt Out Case." ( )

Ostensibly, these are notes taken in the search for characters as the raw material for two novels. The greater part is taken up with his visit to Belgian Congo in 1959 where he visited leprosy missions run by Catholic clergy. Greene learns a lot about the disease; it seems the cutting edge for research was Congo. He is less successful in his search for a character/s to populate his new novel. The resultant novel is "A Burnt-Out Case". There are wonderful informative footnotes, such as:
"Leprosy cases whose disease has been arrested and cured only after the loss of fingers and toes are known as burnt out cases*"
"*The English phrase is used by Belgian doctors-there is no French equivalent, and for that reason I had to find quite a different title for my novel in French."

The notes from a cargo ship in a convoy that delivers Greene to Freetown, where he was to work as a spy are brief. The crew and passengers are under strain continually. Drinking, cards and worry.

In 1959 Graham Greene set off on a journey to the Belgian Congo to get some background for his book 'A Burnt-Out Case'. His forthcoming novel was to be set in a leper-colony so he determined to visit one and wrote his 'Congo Journal' while there. His observations upon leprosy and on the many sufferers, doctors and priests are interesting,if not always entirely compassionate. In fact he does not appear to be someone who has anything in common with those he comes across on his journey. In the course of the journal, Greene discusses various books that he has read along the way and seems to dislike them all,from "Great Expectations' downwards. He describes the jungle and living conditions well.
In the second Journal, Convoy 'To West Africa',which takes up only 22 pages out of 105,Greene tells of the voyage he took in December 1941 from Liverpool to Africa. This was of course during the Second World War and describes the conditions on board avoiding U Boats and enemy aircraft.
A fascinating glimpse into the mind of an important writer and rather unsympathetic man. ( )