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A Fighting Withdrawal: The Life of Dan Davin: Writer, Soldier, Publisher by Keith Ovenden

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Ovenden draws on public and private papers to paint a compelling portrait of Dan Davin, OUP's Academic Publisher. He charts one man's growth against the background of war and the literary-intellectual milieu of post-war London and Oxford. A New Zealander, Davin originally came to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. During the Second World War he fought in Crete, and, later, wrote the campaign's official history. As a novelist he befriended contemporary writers such as Louis MacNeice, and Joyce Cary among others. In this fascinating biography Davin emerges as a man with a complex public and private life, beset in later life by depression and alcoholism. Editorial Reviews Review `It may not quite be log cabin to White House, but from a working-class Irish community in Invercargill, closest city to the South Pole, to director of the most prestigious academic press in Europe, is hardly the story of an ordinary man ... A Fighting Withdrawal has those essential ingredients for good biography - pace, accuracy, style, enthusiasm, breadth. It is a vivid and compassionate account of a gifted, hugely attractive, humane and troubled man.' Vincent O'Sullivan `by facing the biographer's task, using sympathy and syntax, he lays before us a life which needs no further embroidery ... Davin's life as offered by Keith Ovenden is a rich and colourful tapestry which suggests insight and sensitivity on behalf of the biographer' Helen Peacocke, Oxford Times `immensely detailed study of his childhood in New Zealand ... this is a generous and well-constructed tribute and should stir some good memories for Davin's still numerous friends and admirers' Times Literary Supplement From the Back Cover Dan Davin was a man of paradoxes: a New Zealander who lived most of his life in Oxford; a man of action who fought in the front line during the Second World War, and made his reputation as a publisher and novelist; a devoted family man who nevertheless led a passionate personal life outside his marriage. Born into an Irish Catholic working-class family in the New Zealand province of Southland, Davin prospered through his intellectual prowess, eventually winning a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University in 1935. At the outbreak of war he joined the army and served with the New Zealand Division in Greece, Crete, North Africa and Italy. The future official historian of the Crete campaign, he served in army intelligence before settling in London and then Oxford, where he began publishing his novels and made the friendship of fellow writers including Dylan Thomas and Julian Maclaren-Ross. He rose to become Academic Publisher at Oxford University Press, instrumental in the publication of major scholarly works and the friend and confidant of Louis MacNeice, Joyce Cary, A. J. P. Taylor and many others. His often turbulent private life, in contrast to the domestic stability of the home that he made with his extraordinary wife Winnie, and their three daughters, nevertheless was central to his creative life until the tragedy and distress of his last years. About the Author Keith Ovenden is a freelance writer who knew Dan Davin for the last 22 years of his life. He has held academic posts in the UK and New Zealand and has written several novels and books of political economy.
Publication Details

Title: A Fighting Withdrawal: The Life of Dan Davin: Writer, Soldier, Publisher

Author(s):

  • Keith Ovenden

Illustrator:

Binding: Hardcover

Published by: Oxford University Press: , 1996

Edition:

ISBN: 9780192123350 | 0192123351

502 pages. 5.75 x 1.29 x 8.81 inches

  • ENG- English
Book Condition: Very Good
902o

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