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Roger Casement: A Biography
A biography extending from Casement's Irish origins to his work in Africa and South America as British consul. Casement's official reports on the atrocities committed against the rubber gatherers brought him fame and led to reform of the rubber trade in the Congo and the Putumayo. His involvement in the recruitment of Irish prisoners of war to fight against the British during the Great War caused him to be tried for treason and hanged in what is perhaps one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British history, brought about in part by the leaking of passages from his shockingly homosexual Black Diaries, presented here in almost their entirety.
310 pages, Paperback
First published May 28, 2007
5 people want to read
About the author
William Bryant
37 booksWilliam Bryant has lived and worked in the Middle East since before the Gulf War, in assignments with Saudi Medical Services, the Saudi navy and in the oil industry. He has written biographies of Roger Casement and Alfred Russel Wallace and Ross, a novel, parts of which appeared in Evergreen Review.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 21, 2025
An uneven biography, at times moving and informative, but spoiled by sweeping, unsubstantiated claims and some crass throwaway comments that would not have got past a publisher had there been one.
On page 7: “Casement arrogantly defied the social conventions of his class, but he was not the only one, and Victoria was a bitch.”
On page 38: “the Portuguese soldiers and police were devoted to sodomy, as they are to this day.”
On page 102: “there is something sinisterly erotic about [describes various incidents of rape and child abuse]”.
The analysis , such as it is, of the Diaries, is equally unsatisfactory and often pure conjecture. How does Bryant know that “this was when Casement was first buggered”. Was he there!?
The author seems unsure what to make of his subject, veering from derision to admiration, which may actually be a fair assessment of Casement, who seems to have been both conceited and compassionate in equal measure. A man who, on the one hand, exposed human rights abuses in the Congo and Peru and yet, on the other, seemed to find nothing wrong in paying - possibly hundreds of - young men for sex, some of them still children. An unlikely hero.
Interspersing the Diaries into the chronology of Casement’s life works well but they are not an easy read, full of ambiguity and abbreviations, which Bryant makes no attempt to decipher (perhaps unable to).
The book definitely improves when it moves away from the Diaries, which seem to confuse Bryant and lead to unwanted and occasionally smutty commentary, and becomes a more traditional biography of Casement’s demise. The description of the last years of his life is moving and well written, though how much of this is fresh insight is open to question.
On page 7: “Casement arrogantly defied the social conventions of his class, but he was not the only one, and Victoria was a bitch.”
On page 38: “the Portuguese soldiers and police were devoted to sodomy, as they are to this day.”
On page 102: “there is something sinisterly erotic about [describes various incidents of rape and child abuse]”.
The analysis , such as it is, of the Diaries, is equally unsatisfactory and often pure conjecture. How does Bryant know that “this was when Casement was first buggered”. Was he there!?
The author seems unsure what to make of his subject, veering from derision to admiration, which may actually be a fair assessment of Casement, who seems to have been both conceited and compassionate in equal measure. A man who, on the one hand, exposed human rights abuses in the Congo and Peru and yet, on the other, seemed to find nothing wrong in paying - possibly hundreds of - young men for sex, some of them still children. An unlikely hero.
Interspersing the Diaries into the chronology of Casement’s life works well but they are not an easy read, full of ambiguity and abbreviations, which Bryant makes no attempt to decipher (perhaps unable to).
The book definitely improves when it moves away from the Diaries, which seem to confuse Bryant and lead to unwanted and occasionally smutty commentary, and becomes a more traditional biography of Casement’s demise. The description of the last years of his life is moving and well written, though how much of this is fresh insight is open to question.
Displaying 1 of 1 review