David Caute (John David Caute) Biography

British novelist and historian, born in Alexandria, Egypt, educated at Wadham College, Oxford. A fellow of All Souls until 1965, he has subsequently held numerous visiting professorships in Britain and the USA. A radical Marxist view of Western civilization and its relations with the Third World informs a number of novels, including At Fever Pitch (1959), set during Ghana's emergence into nationhood, The K-Factor (1983), and News from Nowhere (1986), both of which reflect the turmoil preceding the establishment of Zimbabwe. Recognized as an intellectually stimulating writer, Caute has been censured for the dominance of political analysis in his fiction. Among his other novels are The Occupation (1971), concerning an academic's quest for self-knowledge; The Women's Hour (1991), a comedy of gender politics in a university context; and Dr Orwell and Mr Blair (1994). His other publications include the historical works Communism and the French Intellectuals, 1914–1960 (1964) and The Fellow Travellers (1973), on the visits to Russia made by numerous leading twentieth-century European writers; and the biography Joseph Losey: A Revenge on Life (1994).