“He found despair as necessary as ambition. He lived on the masochistic side of asceticism, and part of his self-punishment involved… cancelling out and denying high achievement and recognition. This involved a symbolic killing of the self, a taking up of a new life and a new name. A many-sided genius whose accomplishments precluded the privacy he constantly sought, but created in his own person a characterisation rivalling any in contemporary fiction”.
Subjected to torture; a linguist; explorer and resilient traveller; historian; translator of The Odyssey; successful pioneer of guerilla warfare and a military hero; close friends with some of the foremost figures in society; an expert shot with both hands; good at pretty much everything to which he turned his hand; enjoyed motorbikes; accused by some of betrayal; refused an official honour; interviewed and rejected by W.E Johns, (author of Biggles); and the occupant of a flat in Westminster. And that is only part of it. If the whole story was told it would give the game away.
Who is it?
TE Shaw!
Well done!