Alexander Clifford

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Alexander Clifford self-portrait
Alan Moorehead (left) and Alexander Clifford (right) during the North African Campaign

Alexander G. Clifford (1909 – 1952) was a British journalist and author, best known as a war correspondent during World War II.

Life

Clifford was educated at Charterhouse School and Balliol College, Oxford.[1] He married the actress and journalist Jennie Prydie Nicholson (1919–1964) on 22 February 1945 in the Savoy Chapel, London; she was the eldest child of poet and author Robert Graves and Annie Mary Prydie "Nancy" Nicholson, elder daughter of the painter William Nicholson.[note 1][2] Clifford died in 1952 and is buried on the headland near Portofino, Italy.

World War II

Clifford was a war correspondent for the Daily Mail during the war. In June 1940 the Sunderland flying ship in which he was being transported beached near Malta to avoid sinking.[3][clarification needed]

Clifford was a friend of

Invasion of Normandy. According to one writer, "Moorehead and Clifford were complementary opposites, professional rivals as well as friends. Clifford was an intellectual European and a profound pessimist, uncertain of himself and the world. The expatriate Moorehead was driven by his curiosity, brilliance and eagerness to discover the world."[5]
Moorehead's memoir A Late Education: Episodes in a Life is, amongst other things, the story of his friendship with Clifford. Richard Knott's book The Trio (2015) is an account of Clifford's work as a war correspondent and his friendship with Alan Moorehead and Christopher Buckley.

Books by Clifford

  • Crusader,
    G. G. Harrap
    , London, 1942
  • Three against Rommel. The Campaigns of Wavell, Auchinleck and Alexander, G. G. Harrap, London, 1943
  • The Sickle and the Stars (with Jennie Nicholson), P. Davies, London, 1948
  • Enter Citizens, Evans Bros, London, 1950
  • The Conquest of North Africa 1940 to 1943, Kessinger, 2007

Notes

  1. ^ Nancy Nicholson did not take Graves' surname when they married, and also insisted that her daughters bear hers.

References

  1. ^ Alan Moorehead, 'A Late Education' (1970), p 41 and p 132
  2. ^ Robert Graves Family Tree Archived 25 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine, St. John's College Robert Graves Trust, accessed 30 November 2009
  3. ^ Sunderland Squadrons of World War 2, Jon Lake, Osprey, 2000, p. 74, accessed 30 November 2009
  4. ^ Details of A Late Education: Episodes In A Life, choosebooks.com, accessed 30 November 2009
  5. ^ Review of Moorehead's A Late Education, textpublishing.com.au, accessed 30 November 2009 Archived 25 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine

External links

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