Brian Brendon Talbot Cleeve (22 November 1921 â€" 11 March 2003) was a
writer, whose published works include twenty-one novels and over a
hundred short stories. He was also an award-winning broadcaster on
RTÉ television. Son of an Irish father and English mother, he was
born and raised in England. He lived in South Africa during the early
years of National Party rule and was expelled from the country because
of his opposition to apartheid. In his early thirties he moved to
Ireland where he lived for the remainder of his life. In late middle
age he underwent a profound spiritual experience, which led him to
embrace mysticism. He developed a model for the spiritual life based
on the principle of obedience to the will of God.Brian Cleeve was born
in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, the second of three sons to Charles Edward
Cleeve and his wife Josephine (née Talbot).[1] Josephine was a native
of Essex, where her family had lived for generations. Charles Cleeve,
who was born in Limerick, Ireland, was a scion of a famous and wealthy
family that ran several successful Irish enterprises in the
late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.[2] The Cleeves came
from Canada originally and emigrated to Ireland in the mid-nineteenth
century. As a result of labour troubles and the effects of the Irish
Civil War, the Cleeve business failed and Charles moved with his
family to England, where Brian was born in 1921.When he was
two-and-a-half, Brian's mother died and his maternal grandparents,
Alfred and Gertrude Talbot, took over responsibility for his
upbringing. At age eight, Cleeve was sent as a boarder to Selwyn House
in Kent, followed at age 12 by three years at St. Edward's School in
Oxford.[3] He was by nature a free-thinker and he rejected the
assumptions and prejudices that were then part and parcel of
upper-middle class English life. His unwillingness to conform meant
that school life was very difficult for him, and, in the late summer
of 1938, Cleeve decided not to return to St. Edward's for his final
year. Instead, he ran away to sea.
writer, whose published works include twenty-one novels and over a
hundred short stories. He was also an award-winning broadcaster on
RTÉ television. Son of an Irish father and English mother, he was
born and raised in England. He lived in South Africa during the early
years of National Party rule and was expelled from the country because
of his opposition to apartheid. In his early thirties he moved to
Ireland where he lived for the remainder of his life. In late middle
age he underwent a profound spiritual experience, which led him to
embrace mysticism. He developed a model for the spiritual life based
on the principle of obedience to the will of God.Brian Cleeve was born
in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, the second of three sons to Charles Edward
Cleeve and his wife Josephine (née Talbot).[1] Josephine was a native
of Essex, where her family had lived for generations. Charles Cleeve,
who was born in Limerick, Ireland, was a scion of a famous and wealthy
family that ran several successful Irish enterprises in the
late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.[2] The Cleeves came
from Canada originally and emigrated to Ireland in the mid-nineteenth
century. As a result of labour troubles and the effects of the Irish
Civil War, the Cleeve business failed and Charles moved with his
family to England, where Brian was born in 1921.When he was
two-and-a-half, Brian's mother died and his maternal grandparents,
Alfred and Gertrude Talbot, took over responsibility for his
upbringing. At age eight, Cleeve was sent as a boarder to Selwyn House
in Kent, followed at age 12 by three years at St. Edward's School in
Oxford.[3] He was by nature a free-thinker and he rejected the
assumptions and prejudices that were then part and parcel of
upper-middle class English life. His unwillingness to conform meant
that school life was very difficult for him, and, in the late summer
of 1938, Cleeve decided not to return to St. Edward's for his final
year. Instead, he ran away to sea.
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