Born in 1904, Graham Greene grew up in a world where duty, tradition, and moral virtue were primary emphases in a boy’s upbringing. His father, Charles Greene, was headmaster of a well-regarded boarding school that Greene attended. Young Graham was expected not only to exhibit exemplary behavior, but to inform his father when his fellow pupils misbehaved— that is, engaged in sexual vice. Charles Greene believed masturbation to be a physically degenerative act that would lead boys to perdition. Offenders were summarily expelled. In this stifling atmosphere, the son rapidly learned to be quiet and unobtrusive—secretive, even. This behavior continued in his university career at Oxford, where Greene entertained German spies in his room. Indeed, many of his relatives (and Greene himself) engaged in more or less regular professional spycraft. Greene did a fair amount of professional spy work, in an official capacity during the Second World War and as a freelance agent-for-hire well into the 1970s. If it was unusual for a novelist to serve as a paid intelligence agent, it was not unusual for a novelist to write about spies, which Greene did throughout his life. Some of his novels were bald thrillers, others more serious stories, but virtually all of them featured deeply troubled protagonists in the throes of moral dilemma, personal treachery, and tortured religious identity.
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