1. “The Destructors” by Graham Greene 1904 – 1991 English novelist and short story writer. Father was a school headmaster. Greene traveled the world as an adult, finding inspiration for his novels. Greene worked for the Foreign Office during World War II and was stationed for a while at Freetown, Sierra Leone, the scene of another of his best-known novels, The Heart of the MatterThe Heart of the Matter Was known to suffer from clinical depression throughout his lifetime. (Bi Polar disorder as well.) The End of the Affair (1951; films 1955 and 1999) is narrated by an agnostic in love with a woman who forsakes him because of a religious conviction that brings her near to sainthood. The End of the Affair http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/245175/Graham-Greene Five minute video on Greene’s life

2. from artsbeat.blog New York Times 7/5/13 The excerpt at right is from an interview with this new book’s author Lara Feigel. She writes about the effect of WWII on Graham Greene and other famous British writers. Question: You write that Graham Greene felt an “anarchic exhilaration” from the war’s destruction. Why did he welcome the war {WWII} in a way others didn’t? Answer: Greene was a manic-depressive. In his childhood he’d played Russian roulette with a loaded gun. He thrived on danger, because the moment of surviving an encounter with death was a moment of being intensely aware that he was alive. He spent his 20s longing for war, going off to seek danger elsewhere, and he found in the Blitz a respite from his usual feeling of dissatisfaction. He was dismissive of pacifists, because he thought that if war were really as unpleasant as they made it sound it would have gone out of fashion long ago. And he was delighted when his house was bombed, because it made him feel oddly weightless. This makes him seem very unpleasant which he wasn’t. He was just easily depressed and dissatisfied, and he found it easier to enjoy the everyday pleasures of writing, love and friendship against a background of danger. "Life During Wartime: Lara Feigel Talks About 'The Love-charm of Bombs'"ArtsBeat Life During Wartime Lara Feigel Talks About The Lovecharm of Bombs Comments. New York Times, 10 July 2013. Web. 27 Aug. 2014.

3. The bombing of London, 1940. Above, Prime Minister Winston Churchill inspects damage. Right, the London subways serve as air raid shelters.

4. ACT Preparation Answer Key: 1. B2. C “He was dismissive of pacifists (1) because he thought that if war were really as unpleasant as they made it sound it would have gone out of fashion long ago.” 1. “pacifists” most closely means… a. people who support war b. people who oppose war c. people who are indifferent toward war. “And he was delighted when his house was bombed, because it made him feel oddly weightless. This makes him seem very unpleasant which he wasn’t. (2) He was just easily depressed and dissatisfied, and he found it easier to enjoy the everyday pleasures of writing, love and friendship against a background of danger.” 2. a. no change b. This makes him seem very unpleasant. Which he wasn’t. c. This makes him seem very unpleasant, which he wasn’t. d. This makes him seem very unpleasant; which he wasn’t.