Charles Patrick Graves
Charles Ranke Patrick Graves (1 December 1899 – 21 February 1971) was a journalist and writer, and brother of Robert Graves.
He was born in Wimbledon, England. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves (born in Dublin, 22 July 1846) who was a poet of high standing, writing many charming poems and ballads. His mother was Amalie (Amy) Elizabeth Sophie (or Sophia) von Ranke.[1]
He worked on the Sunday Express, Daily Mail and many other newspapers. He published 46 books in all including the Thin Blue Line or Adventures in the RAF. He also wrote a continuation (more than a sequel) called "The Avengers." His hobbies were golf and gin rummy.
Books
Two of his books are of special interest, his Ireland Revisited (1949) and his autobiography The Bad Old Days (1951). In Ireland Revisited he takes the reader on an informative and humorous tour of Ireland.
He begins his autobiography:
"Those were the days, the Bad Old Days – primarily of large families, but also of could look the dollar in the eye without flinching or wincing, when cigarettes were 11d. for 20 and beef was unrationed and champagne was 5s. a bottle."
and he concludes it as follows:
"What is happiness? I did not yet know. But I had already learnt that to have any chance of success in life one must be able to ‘take it’; that tact can be worth all the genius in the world; that unless you specialise you will never make more than £800 a year; that it is madness to disbelieve in luck and the cycles of luck; that you have to spend money to make money; that you must at all costs keep your youthful enthusiasms; that the two greatest influences in a man’s life are his mother and his wife; that marriage will either make you or break you, because it can never leave you the same."
References
- ^ Bernard, Sir Burke, editor, Burke's genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Ireland, 3rd ed. (London, U.K.: Burkes Peerage Ltd, 1912), page 275
