Graham Greene was an English writer and journalist, regarded as one of the leading novelists of the 20th century.

Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a reputation early in his lifetime as a major writer, both of serious novels, and of thrillers (or “entertainments” as he termed them). He was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times. Across 67 years of writing, which included over 25 novels, he explored the conflicting moral and political issues of the modern world. He was awarded the 1968 Shakespeare Prize and the 1981 Jerusalem Prize.

Collected here are twelve full-cast BBC Radio dramatisations of Greene’s novels:

A Burnt-Out Case – Querry, a celebrated architect of churches believes himself burnt out: unable to feel anything for his profession, his faith or even the suicide of his mistress. He journeys to a remote leper colony in Africa. There, he hopes to live in obscurity, unconcerned with the fate of others and to die, but it seems that he may have a second chance to find both happiness and redemption.

The Comedians – Three men meet on a ship bound for Haiti, a country in the grip of the corrupt ‘Papa Doc’ and the Tontons Macoute, his sinister secret police. Brown the hotelier, Smith the innocent American and Jones the confidence man – these are the ‘comedians’ of Graham Greene’s title. Hiding behind their actors’ masks, they hesitate on the edge of life. And, to begin with, they are men afraid of love, afraid of pain and afraid of fear itself…

The Confidential Agent – When Edgar Dominguez is sent to England on a mission to arrange a supply of coal for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War it seems a straightforward business negotiation; but no sooner does he set foot on English soil than he finds himself a hunted man, with seemingly no one he can trust and implicated in murder.

The Honorary Consul – Isolated Dr Eduardo Plarr, son of a missing political prisoner, is lured into collaborating with a defrocked priest in a kidnap plot, only to find the lives of two people he doesn’t care for, suddenly in his hands. Meanwhile Charles Fortnum, the elderly and drunken Honorary Consul in a one-horse town near the Paraguayan border, faces his own terrors, and the loss of the young prostitute he has fallen in love with.

The Ministry Of Fear – A wartime thriller about identity, memory and truth. For Arthur Rowe the charity fete was a trip back to childhood, a welcome chance to escape the terror of the Blitz. Then he correctly guesses the weight of a cake and from that moment – he’s a hunted man.

Monsignor Quixote – Graham Greene’s comic reworking of Cervantes’ classic novel. In rural Spain a few years after the death of Franco, Father Quixote makes a friend of an Italian bishop, with unexpected consequences.

Our Man in Havana – James Wormold is scraping a living in Havana as a vacuum cleaner salesman while looking after Milly, his teenage daughter. He is approached by British intelligence and offered money to spy for his country. Wormold accepts the offer – the trouble is he doesn’t know the first thing about spying nor does he have any useful contacts or information. Loathe to give up his new source of income he hits upon the idea of creating intelligence and inventing fellow agents he has recruited. But when a news story reports that one of Wormold’s fictitious sources has been killed in a suspicious car accident, the story takes a weird and dark turn. It seems the KGB has discovered that he’s an M16 spy and they too believe his reports. Way out of his depth, Wormold is now on a desperate mission to save his other ‘sources’ whilst not being killed himself.

The Potting Shed – With the exception of two, the Callifer family is gathered for the funeral of the family head. Then, unexpectedly, one of the missing two turns up, and the defence they have all maintained during the old man’s lifetime begins to crumble as the long-guarded secret of what happened in the potting shed is threatened.

The Quiet American – Pyle is a brash young idealist sent out by Washington on a mysterious mission to Saigon, where the French Army struggles against the Vietminh guerrillas. As young Pyle’s well-intentioned policies blunder into bloodshed, Fowler, a seasoned and cynical British reporter, finds it impossible to stand safely aside as an observer. But Fowler’s motives for intervening are suspect, both to the police and himself, for Pyle has stolen Fowler’s beautiful Vietnamese mistress.

The Return of A J Raffles – Raffles was a gentleman thief, invented by the early Edwardian author E W Hornung. Hornung killed off his creation by having him join the army and die fighting in the Boer War. In 1975 however, Graham Greene decided that Raffles had faked his own death and returned to England, to set out on one final crime with his friend Bunny. This is a BBC radio adaptation of that play.

The Third Man –
Rollo Martins is a writer of cheap paperback Westerns under the name of Buck Dexter. When his old friend Harry Lime invites him to Vienna, he jumps at the chance. With exactly five pounds in his pocket, he arrives only just in time to make it to his friend’s funeral. The victim of an apparently banal street accident, the late Mr. Lime, it seems, had been the focus of a criminal investigation, suspected of nothing less than being “the worst racketeer who ever made a dirty living in this city.” Martins is determined to clear his friend’s name, and begins an investigation of his own…

Travels with my Aunt – A retired bank manager, dahlia enthusiast and all-round dull and boring person Henry has his life turned upside down after meeting flamboyant Aunt Augusta at his mother’s funeral. Fascinated by such an extraordinary lady he is roped into accompanying her to a variety of places, always first class and on the edge of criminal activity. Henry gradually opens his eyes to pleasures and scenes not previously known to him, and a morality far beyond his own narrow suburban experience.