I was born on 16th May 1923 in London
and, with an elder brother and two sisters grew up in Hertfordshire 20 miles to the north. After infant schooling,
education was at a preparatory school in Dorset, followed by 6 months learning French in Touraine, and then four
years at Eton. In Jan 1941 I went to New College Oxford where I did a shortened war time degree course receiving
at the end a BA in modern history.
After joining the army in the summer of 1942, I was commissioned a year later in the Rifle Brigade and in the autumn
of 1943 shipped to the Mediterranean to take part in the Italian campaign. Five months later I was back in England
after being wounded while serving at the Anzio bridgehead. When the war ended I still had two more years of service
to go. These (1945-47) I spent in Egypt attached to an intelligence unit based in Cairo.
I had been destined for the law,
but after demobilisation I chose a literary career instead. I began by writing books and articles for the Times Literary Suppplement and The Spectator, working at the same time on the first of my two novels, Tillotson which was published in 1951 by Collins
being 'recommended by the Book Society' at the instigation of the historian Veronica Wedgewood and novelist Rose
Macaulay.
In 1953 I became a Catholic which obviously was the greatest spiritual fulfilment in my life.
After I became a Catholic in 1953 I embarked on a long historical novel. A Danger to the
State (Ignatius Press) about a Spanish family involved in the intrigues leading up to
the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773 and the destruction of the Guarani mission stations in Paraguay.
Then came a long period of Catholic journalism for English, American and Canadian journals, which included covering
the episcopal Synods in Rome during the 1980s for the US Catholic paper The Wanderer, and representing it to officials of the Holy See. These experiences contributed greatly to my understanding
of the Second Vatican Council, the events coming after it and their historical origins. The outcome was my two
books on the subject, Turmoil and Truth (Ignatius Press,1998) and The Church and the Counterfaith, (Family Publications). Now 91, I still
write the occasional article.
Copyright © Philip Trower 2014