'The Quiet American' Captured the Hubris of Empire

In June 1951, British novelist Graham Greene was cruising round the Mediterranean in a luxury yacht, the guest of movie producer Alexander Korda. By mid-month they had reached Greek waters.

“Last night we spent in Epidaurus Bay & went up to the Greek theatre for a concert,” Greene wrote to his American lover Catherine Walston. “First, Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony (which I liked perhaps because a faint idea for an Indochina novel stirred).”