*There is more than one author named Anthony Rhodes; the information herein refers to Anthony Richard Ewart Rhodes whose works of fiction and nonfiction include 'Sword of Bone' (1942), 'The Uniform' (1949), 'A Sabine Journey' (1952), 'A Ball in Venice' (1953), 'A Journey to Budapest" (1956), 'The Poet as Superman' (1960), 'The Prophet's Carpet' (1961), 'The Dalamatian Coast (1954), 'Louis Renault' (1969), 'Art Treasures of Eastern Europe ' (1972), and a trilogy about the Vatican which consists of 'The Vatican in the Age of Dictators 1922-1945' (1973), 'The Vatican in the Age of Liberal Democracies, 1870-1922,' (1983), and 'The Vatican in the Age of the Cold War' (1992).
Rhodes was educated at Rugby School, the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and Trinity College, University of Cambridge. He served as a captain in the Royal Engineers during World War II (and recounts some of his experiences leading up to the evacuation of the B.E.F. at Dunkirk in 1940 in his memoir titled "Sword of Bone'). Post-war, he studied at University of Geneva and taught at Eton.
His astute, unbiased research using a multitude of primary sources, many in the official archives of Britain, Germany, and Italy, resulted in his being one of the most widely respected journalists to disprove the allegations that Pope Pius XII could have done more to protect European Jews from persecution by the Nazis.
In recognition of his achievements in journalism, fiction, nonfiction, and his contribution to the history of the Vatican, Rhodes was invested a Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great by Pope Paul VI in 1976 and some years later he converted to Catholicism.
This is a marvelous window into the past and a segment of the artistic world largely ignored by many western texts. Whether it is The Visitation’s lovely hues, the magnificent lines of the Lombard Basilica or the massive cruciform of St. Clement’s in Ohrid, Art Treasures of Eastern Europe shimmers in an artistic legacy of those who have come before. Outstanding reference book, especially for students of art and history.