James Aldridge

born in 1918

James Aldridge is a progressive English writer. He was born in Australia but received his education in England. He began to work as a journalist when he was sixteen. The Spanish Civil War made a great impression on Aldridge and helped to form him as an anti-fascist. He finished a pilot school and wanted to go to Spain and help the Spanish people in their struggle against the fascists, but he was not allowed to go there. During World War II he was a newspaper reporter and visited almost all the fighting countries. His first novel "Signed with Their Honour" (1942) is a story of the war in Greece. Aldridge shows in this book that in! 940 the British command in Greece, which had promised to help the Greeks against the fascist Italian and German armies, was really on the side of the fascists.

Aldridge had always been interested in aviation and could be often seen piloting a plane. Later he took an interest in the ocean. In Australia he saw how people were attacked by sharks. He heard many stories of sharks attacking people in the water. He wanted to find out if these stories were true, and went down under the water to make a film about sharks.

Several times Aldridge visited the USSR. He was at the Black Sea and greatly enjoyed underwater swimming.

Aldridge wrote several books. His second novel "The Sea Eagle" (1944) was also devoted to the struggle of the Greeks against fascism. His other books are 'The Diplomat", "In Italy", "The Forty-Ninth State", a satirical play which tells how Britain depends on the USA, and others. In 1974 his latest novel "Mockery in Arms" was published. [53]

His main characters are ordinary people who struggle for the liberation of their countries from foreign armies and fascism. For his antiwar novels James Aidridge has won the Lenin International Prize for Peace Among the Nations.