Against the Wind: An Autobiography

by Geoffrey Household

In his autobiography, 'Against the Wind,' novelist Geoffrey Household tells us the story of his own life, showing us the background and the experiences, droll and sometimes hazardous, from which he emerged as a writer. A graduate of Oxford, he was slated for a career in the Civil Service, but instead he went to Romania as an apprentice-clerk in the Ottoman Bank. His next assignment was as a banana salesman in Spain; from there he lived in New York City and then as the war closed in, Household, with his command of languages, qualified as an officer in Field Security. He was sent back to Romania with a plan for destroying the oil fields before the Nazi invasion. From there he was shifted to Greece, Syria, Palestine and Persia. In the final chapters Household addresses the writer's craft and his personal aspirations. His life's story--unconventional, amusing and exciting--is the essence of a great narrator.

238 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

British author of mostly thrillers, though among 37 books he also published children's fiction. Household's flight-and-chase novels, which show the influence of John Buchan, were often narrated in the first person by a gentleman-adventurer. Among his best-know works is' Rogue Male' (1939), a suggestive story of a hunter who becomes the hunted, in 1941 filmed by Fritz Lang as 'Man Hunt'. Household's fast-paced story foreshadowed such international bestsellers as Richard Condon's thriller 'The Manchurian Candidate' (1959), Frederick Forsyth's 'The Day of the Jackal' (1971), and Ken Follett's 'Eye of the Needle' (1978) .

In 1922 Household received his B.A. in English from Magdalen College, Oxford, and between 1922 and 1935 worked in commerce abroad, moving to the US in 1929. During World War II, Household served in the Intelligence Corps in Romania and the Middle East. After the War he lived the life of a country gentleman and wrote. In his later years, he lived in Charlton, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, and died in Wardington.

Household also published an autobiography, 'Against the Wind' (1958), and several collections of short stories, which he himself considered his best work.

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Household is a charming narrator. I wouldn't rate this as highly as the best of his novels (of which I've only read the terrific Rogue Male so far), but he's had an unusual life and is atypically British: that is, very open to other ways of life, a lover of Spain and the Spanish, a linguist. The sections are titled: Traveller, Soldier, Craftsman. Soldier, the middle section, is the longest and least interesting (to me). I admit I skipped some of it. But...there are adventures and observations for all here.

[Mandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Author of many thrillers and adventure novels, Geoffrey Household’s own life was as full of thrills and adventures as that of any of his heroes. A peripatetic life, first in business and commerce, later in the military during WWII, his trajectory was anything but ordinary. He even managed to fit in a couple of marriages and a couple of children – not that he gives them any prominence in this autobiography. A fascinating life, certainly, but this account of it is very dry and on occasion even tedious – I skipped much of the war episode. His rather self-deprecating, very British style makes it all seem somewhat toned down and I got no real sense of the drama that his life was so full of. I’ve only read a couple of his novels and I found them equally dull, so maybe he’s just not a writer for me. But the book has much to recommend it as an overview of a travelling life in the first half of the 20th century, and as an examination of the writer’s life and craft.

[Emilymcmc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A somewhat dense and evasive book about Household's very interesting life. It has some of the hallmarks of him at his best -- wit, actually-interesting descriptions of logistics (such as troop movements) -- and some of what I don't like. It's not a must-read on its own, EXCEPT if you also like Olivia Manning's Balkan Trilogy. It turns out that Household was based in Bucharest and Cairo at about the same time as the Mannings, just as World War II broke out, and moved in the same English-expat world. Incidents that are lightly fictionalized in the Balkan Trilogy are written about factually here. It's plausible that the two writers met, though it's hard to see evidence in either one's books, and it's unlikely they would have enjoyed each other's company. But it's fascinating to read the two books together.