Brian Moore
Literature
Born in Belfast in 1921, Brian Moore was one of nine children. He served as a civilian worker in the British Army in North Africa, Italy and France.
Then, following a stint working for the United Nations in Poland, he emigrated to Canada in 1948. Starting as a proof reader on a Montreal newspaper, he became a reporter and feature writer.
In 1952 Brian Moore left journalism to concentrate on novel writing. His first book, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne was the story of an alcoholic Catholic spinster living in Belfast, it won the Authors’ Club First Novel award and was eventually filmed in 1989 with Maggie Smith and Bob Hoskins.
His second novel, The Feast of Lupercal, brought him a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation and he moved to New York to write The Luck of Ginger Coffey, about the adventures of an Irish immigrant in Canada.
In 1966, Brian Moore moved to California, where he would spend the rest of his life, and wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain, an exercise which he later described as “awful, like washing floors”. Catholics, published in 1972, explores the impact of the Second Vatican Council’s doctrinal liberalisation on a remote Catholic community. His 1983 novel, Black Robe tells the story of a 17th century Jesuit missionary faced with rape, murder, cannibalism and the forced conversion of Canada’s Algonquin Indians.
The author of twenty novels, Brian Moore was shortlisted for the Booker Prize on three occasions.
Brian Moore died on 11th January 1999
Wreath for a Redhead (1951) (U.S. title: Sailor’s Leave)
The Executioners (1951)
French for Murder (1954) (as Bernard Mara)
A Bullet for My Lady (1955) (as Bernard Mara)
Judith Hearne (1955) (reprinted as The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne)
This Gun for Gloria (1957) (as Bernard Mara)
Intent to Kill (1957) (as Michael Bryan)
The Feast Of Lupercal (1957) (reprinted as A Moment of Love)
Murder in Majorca (1957) (as Michael Bryan)
The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1960, winner of the 1960 Governor General’s Award for Fiction)
An Answer From Limbo (1962)
The Emperor Of Ice-Cream (1965)
I Am Mary Dunne (1968)
Fergus (1970)
The Revolution Script (1971)
Catholics (1972)
The Great Victorian Collection (1975, winner of the 1975 Governor General’s Award for Fiction) and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Ger 1978: Die Große Viktorianische Sammlung)
The Doctor’s Wife (1976)
The Mangan Inheritance (1979, Ger 1999: Mangans Vermächtnis)
The Temptation of Eileen Hughes (1981)
Cold Heaven (1983)
Black Robe (1985, Ger 1987: Schwarzrock)
The Colour of Blood (1987, winner of the Sunday Express Book of the Year, Ger 1989: Die Farbe des Blutes)
Lies of Silence (1990)
No Other Life (1993)
The Statement (1995, Ger 1997: Hetzjagd)
The Magician’s Wife (1997)