Brian Cleeve facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Brian Cleeve
Brian Cleeve in 1962
Born	Brian Brendon Talbot Cleeve (1921-11-22)22 November 1921 Southend, Essex, England
Died	11 March 2003(2003-03-11) (aged 81) Shankill, Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Writer broadcaster
Years active	1945–2001

Brian Cleeve (born November 22, 1921 – died March 11, 2003) was a talented writer. He wrote many books, including 21 novels and over 100 short stories. He was also a famous TV presenter for RTÉ television in Ireland, winning awards for his work.

Brian was born in England. His father was Irish, and his mother was English. He lived in South Africa for a while. He had to leave because he spoke out against apartheid. Apartheid was a cruel system that separated people based on their race. Later, in his early thirties, Brian moved to Ireland. He lived there for the rest of his life. As he got older, he had a deep spiritual experience. This led him to explore mysticism, which is about understanding spiritual truths. He believed in following God's will.

Brian Cleeve's Life Story

Growing Up in England

Brian Cleeve was born in Southend-on-Sea, England. He was the second of three sons. His mother was from Essex, and her family had lived there for many years. His father, Charles Cleeve, was born in Limerick, Ireland. The Cleeve family was well-known and wealthy. They owned successful businesses in Ireland. The family originally came from Canada.

Sadly, when Brian was two-and-a-half years old, his mother passed away. His grandparents, Alfred and Gertrude Talbot, took care of him. When he was eight, Brian went to a boarding school called Selwyn House in Kent. At age 12, he went to St. Edward's School in Oxford for three years. Brian was a free-thinker. He didn't like to follow old rules or ideas. Because he didn't want to fit in, school was hard for him. In 1938, Brian decided not to go back for his last year. Instead, he ran away and joined a ship.

Adventures as a Young Man

Brian had an exciting life over the next fifteen years. He worked on the famous ship RMS Queen Mary as a waiter. When he was 17, he joined the army. He became a soldier in the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders. World War II started, but he was too young to be sent to Europe.

In 1940, Brian was chosen for officer training. He became an officer in the Somerset Light Infantry. He was sent to Kenya in Africa. A year later, he faced a military trial. This happened because he disagreed with how his colleagues treated an African prisoner. He lost his officer rank. He was then asked to work for British Intelligence as a spy. He worked as a counter-spy in neutral ports like Lisbon and Dublin. To hide his work, he pretended to be a regular sailor.

In 1945, Brian got an Irish passport. He moved to Ireland. There, he met and married Veronica McAdie very quickly. A year later, they left Ireland with their baby daughter, Berenice. They traveled to London, Sweden, the West Indies, and finally South Africa.

In 1948, the family settled in Johannesburg. Brian and Veronica started their own perfume business. Their second daughter, Tanga, was born there in 1953. Brian became friends with a priest named Trevor Huddleston. Through him, Brian saw the difficult lives of black and mixed-race people. They lived in poor areas called townships, like Sophiatown. Brian strongly criticized Apartheid. This was a system of racial separation and unfairness. In 1954, the authorities told him he had to leave South Africa. He returned to Ireland and lived there for the rest of his life.

Brian Cleeve's Writing Career

Brian started writing poems when he was a teenager. Some were even published in his school paper. During the war, he wrote more poems, often about spiritual ideas. Most of these were not published.

In 1945, he began writing novels. His first two books were not accepted. But his third novel, The Far Hills, was published in 1952. This book was based on his early married life in Dublin. It showed a not-so-flattering picture of Irish life in the 1940s. He then wrote two more novels about South Africa. These books described the harsh reality for the native people. This likely played a part in him being told to leave the country.

In the mid-1950s, Brian started focusing on short stories. Over the next 15 years, more than 100 of his short stories were published. They appeared in magazines all over the world. He sold nearly 30 stories to The Saturday Evening Post alone! In 1966, his story Foxer won an honor at the annual Edgar Awards.

During the 1960s and 70s, Brian wrote many successful mystery and spy thrillers. These books had strong characters and exciting plots. One book, Dark Blood, Dark Terror, was highly praised. A newspaper called The Sunday Express even said it was better than a book by the famous writer Graham Greene.

In 1971, Brian published Cry of Morning. This was his most talked-about and successful novel at the time. It showed the big changes happening in Ireland in the 1960s. He later found even more success, especially in the United States. He wrote historical novels with strong female main characters. The first of these was Sara, published in 1975. It was set in England during the time of Napoleon.

Brian also wrote non-fiction books. His most important non-fiction work was the Dictionary of Irish Writers. This huge project took him 20 years! He wanted to create a helpful guide for students and the public about Irish writers. It was a true labor of love for him. The last edition was published in 1985.

Brian Cleeve on Television

On December 31, 1961, Telefís Éireann started. This was Ireland's first TV station. Brian Cleeve joined as a part-time interviewer. He worked on a news program called Broadsheet. In 1964, a new documentary series called Discovery began. Brian wrote the scripts and presented the show. The series explored many parts of Irish life. Brian won a Jacobs' Award for his great work on the show.

In January 1966, Telefís Éireann announced that Brian would no longer present Discovery. They said his voice was "too light." But many people thought the real reason was political. A colleague told Brian that his English accent sounded like the "ascendancy class." This referred to the old ruling class in Ireland. A newspaper started a campaign to support Brian. Soon, he was back on the show.

In September 1966, he joined a new weekly news program called 7 Days. Brian and his team worked to show important public issues. This made big businesses, the Catholic Church, and political parties unhappy. Eventually, the show came under stricter control. Brian refused to work under the new rules. He was moved to less controversial programs. In 1973, Telefís Éireann did not renew his contract. This was ironic because his last documentary won two awards at an international TV festival! The documentary was about the Irish poet Francis Ledwidge. He was killed fighting in World War I.

Other Interests and Hobbies

Besides writing and TV, Brian Cleeve had many other interests:

• While living in South Africa, he learned épée fencing. This is a type of sword fighting. Later, in Ireland, he became very involved in the sport. He even became the Irish champion in 1957 and 1959.
• He was fascinated by Shakespeare's play Hamlet. He wrote a special paper about where the story of the Danish prince came from. This earned him a PhD degree from University College Dublin.
• He loved languages. He studied Shelta, which is the secret language of the Irish Traveller people.

Brian Cleeve's Spiritual Journey

Brian was raised as an Anglican Christian. In 1942, he became a Roman Catholic. In his thirties, he became an agnostic, meaning he wasn't sure if God existed. But he still explored spiritual ideas. In 1977, he felt a deep sense of God's presence. This changed his life completely.

He almost stopped his successful writing career. Instead, he wrote three books about spiritual and mystical topics. These books caused a lot of discussion in Ireland. The first book, The House on the Rock, had thoughts on many subjects. These included good and evil, politics, and nuclear energy. His next book, The Seven Mansions, went deeper into some of these ideas. The third book, The Fourth Mary, was published in 1982. It was about an ancient group that worshipped a god called Dionysus in Jerusalem.

After his spiritual books were published, Brian became more private. He continued to write for a small group of people who contacted him. In 2001, he published essays online. These essays summarized his spiritual beliefs. He described steps for living a spiritual life. These included listening to God's "inner voice" and learning to be a servant of God. [1]

Brian Cleeve's Last Years

Brian's wife, Veronica, passed away in 1999. After that, he moved to Shankill, a village in Dublin. His health got worse after several small strokes. In November 2001, he married his second wife, Patricia Ledwidge. She took care of him during his final months.

Brian Cleeve died suddenly from a heart attack on March 11, 2003. His gravestone has the words, 'Servant of God'.