Godfrey Blunden

Godfrey Blunden (1906-1996) was an Australian journalist and author.

Godfrey Blunden was born Melbourne. At the age of 20 he became Editor of the first "Wireless" magazine in England. Employed by the "Sydney Daily Telegraph" he was sent to England in 1941 and covered the Battle of Britain before being sent to Russia in 1942 where he covered the Stalingrad and Kharkov forces. In 1943 he covered the battles in Holland and Germany whilst attached to US Ninth Airforce and the US Ninth Army. His World War 2 dispatches were published in the "London Evening Standard" [ [http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-1562260_ITM A kind of exile: Godfrey Blunden-an Australian in Paris ] ] .

After the war his wife joined him in Paris. He worked for "Time" for 14 years, and received a Guggenheim Fellowship for fiction in 1953. He left in 1965 to concentrate on novels and non-fiction. He subsequently divorced his wife an married a Polish girl and settled in Paris, then Venice and later in Vence, France. [ [http://www.family.jwsmith.com.au/family_history_jws/jws_blundens/jws_blundens_in_australia.htm Blundens in Australia ] ] He never returned to Australia and was a permanent expatriate and an exile, but he was a passionate Australian and never gave up his close bond with the country through exchanging letters and receiving visits from his extended family and later devoting most of his writing to Australian subjects and themes.

Blunden authored several novels, including "A Room on the Route" and "The Time of the Assassins". [ [preface to CHARCO HARBOUR, Godfrey Blunden,1968, Penguin] ] His novel "Charco Harbour" is a modernist historical fiction on Captain James Cook and his journey along the Australian coast in 1768.He died in Paris in 1996. [ [http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-1562260_ITM A kind of exile: Godfrey Blunden-an Australian in Paris ] ]

elect Works

* "No More Reality", 1935
* "A Room on the Route", 1951
* "The Time of the Assassins", 1953
* "The Looking Glass Conference", 1957
* "Charco Harbour", 1968

Non Fiction Select Works

* "Australia and Her People",1960<
* "Impressionists and impressionism" (with Maria Blunden),1972
* "Norman Lindsay Watercolours. Fifteen Reproductions in Colour from Original Watercolours with an Appreciation of the Medium By Norman Lindsay and a Survey of the Artist's Life and Work", 1973

References

* http://www.sup.usyd.edu.au/projects_cal_authors.html
* http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-1562260_ITM
* http://www.family.jwsmith.com.au/family_history_jws/jws_blundens/jws_blundens_in_australia.htm
* "A kind of exile: Godfrey Blunden--an Australian in Paris" by Patrick Buckridge: An biographical article from The Journal of Australian Studies, University of Queensland Press.

Persondata
NAME=Blunden, Godfrey
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Expatriate Australian writer
DATE OF BIRTH=1906
PLACE OF BIRTH=Melbourne, Australia
DATE OF DEATH=1996
PLACE OF DEATH=Paris, France