West, Morris

(Australian, 1916–99)

West is famous especially for three books which became films, The Devil's Advocate (1959), filmed with John Mills in 1977, The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963), the first of his Papal trilogy, and Vanishing Point (1996), a psychological thriller. His novels tackle ethical and moral questions in the well-researched international fields of finance, corrupt government, and the Roman Catholic Church. Having almost become a priest, West retained a lifelong interest in the paradoxical life of the Church, in which the flesh and the spirit have to coexist. Start with The Devil's Advocate, an investigation into the ways a priest has to be both a part of and apart from life. ‘Everything in the Church is political … Man is a political animal who has an immortal soul’ says the Cardinal, summing up the theme of the novel and of much of the work of Morris West.

Graham Greene, Brian Moore, Somerset Maugham  FS