Oh, what a lovely century : One man's marvellous adventures in love, war and high society

Roderic Fenwick Owen

For fear of growing up like his stiff upper-lipped, disapproving Uncle Dick, Roderic Fenwick Owen (1921-2011) survived Eton, Oxford and World War II to become a travel writer, experiencing the varied wonders of the 20th Century's people and places in that guise. At the heart of his adventures - which took him from the Arctic to Australia, America to Russia, and a good portion of the places in between - lay his search for love, even if just for the night. He fell madly in love with, and married, a Polynesian princess whilst beachcombing in Tahiti; but when a dazzling trip to 1950s New York opened his eyes to the fact he was more attracted to men than women, he was forced to continue his quest for his soulmate under threat of danger, at a time when the police were prosecuting and imprisoning more gay men than ever before, including some of his friends.