Broken Archangel

The Tempestuous Lives of Roger Casement

Roland Philipps author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Vintage Publishing

Published:4th Apr '24

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Broken Archangel cover

Pioneering human rights campaigner, patriot, romantic, traitor, LGBTQ+ martyr: this is the story of Roger Casement, one of the 20th century’s most complex and compelling figures.

'A book of met­iculous sensitivity and research'TELEGRAPH
'Extraordinary' THE TIMES
'Superbly written, genuinely exciting' ANDREW ROBERTS
'Outstanding' JOHN PRESTON

In 1904, Casement became internationally celebrated for unearthing the grotesque violence of the Belgian Congo. Soon after he won even greater renown and a knighthood for his humanitarian work deep in the Amazon jungle.

But his internal fault lines ran deep: neither fully Irish nor English, baptised both Protestant and Catholic, desperate for love but forbidden intimacy, betrayed in his only significant relationship, he was of the English diplomatic establishment yet an outsider who fought for Irish nationhood. His final act in wartime Berlin – a doomed scheme to promote an invasion of Ireland – overwhelmed him. And while his subsequent trial for treason brought him some resolution, it also took him to an unmarked prison grave.

Casement was a contradictory figure made fallible by contemporary mores and his own unexamined emotions. Only decades later did an Irish state funeral finally assert his nobility above his notoriety – and only now can we fully understand his surprisingly modern and deeply relevant life and legacy.

'In Roland Philipps [Casement] has found the biographer he deserves' MICHELA WRONG, author of Do Not Disturb
'Vivid, poignant and hugely moving' HENRY HEMMING, author of Our Man in New York

**SHORTLISTED FOR HISTORY RECLAIMED'S HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024**

Casement is the Odysseus of Roland Philipp's epic, Broken Archangel, and Philipps is a worthy chronicler. It is a book of meticulous sensitivity and research ... It is a model, in other words, for how to write a biography of a gay person who lived before widespread acceptance * Daily Telegraph *
Philipps is sympathetic to his subject and a careful chronicler of diplomatic and intelligence intrigues … he makes a persuasive case that Casement was a fractured personality who embraced causes to fill an emotional void * Guardian *
[An] extraordinary biography … Philipps [is] an accomplished biographer with a knack for getting under the skin of his subjects … There’s a wonderful immediacy to this portrait, as if Casement sits in the room with us, discussing his life, revealing his secrets * The Times *
Remarkable ... Broken Archangel is an exceptionally well researched and psychologically shrewd portrait of his deeply lonely idealist * Irish Independent *Best Books of 2024* *
The chief virtues of Broken Archangel are its compact size and energetic narrative. For the stranger to Casement’s life, this is the book to buy * Times Literary Supplement *
[An] authoritative and impressively clear-sighted biography ... A vivid and striking portrait of this deeply conflicted man * Irish Independent *
Vivid and compelling * Irish Times *
Meticulous and sympathetic ... [a] fine book * Literary Review *
[A] well-researched and engagingly narrated biography … For those looking for an accurate, fluidly written account of Casement in his own era, this biography is easy to recommend … [his] treason trial are ably transformed into a page-turning finale * History Today *
Roland Philipps' calm, authoritative and sympathetic new account surely comes close to being definitive * The Tablet *

ISBN: 9781847927071

Dimensions: 242mm x 163mm x 40mm

Weight: 659g

400 pages