October 2 2004 marks the centenary of one of the twentieth century's most important literary figures: Graham Greene. Many commemorative events are planned in Britain and America, including a Centenary Festival organized by the Graham Greene Birthplace Trust.

As well as being one of the most widely read novelists of the last century and a superb storyteller, Greene is frequently referred to by other writers as the greatest novelist of his time.

Adventure and suspense are constant elements in his fiction, which treats moral issues in the context of political settings. He called some of his novels serious (The Heart of the Matter, The Quiet American), but branded others as "entertainments" (Brighton Rock, Our Man in Havana).

Graham Greene also wrote plays, short stories, biography, criticism and travel books. He was a journalist as well, and in 1938 was successfully sued by Twentieth Century Fox over a magazine article that, they claimed, accused the studio of procuring child star Shirley Temple for immoral purposes!

Graham Greene (copyright Amanda Saunders)

Greene had a manic depressive temperament, and in his autobiography described how he was tempted to end his life with Russian roulette or deadly nightshade.

He was born in Berkhamstead, England, in 1904, and attended the Berkhamsted School (where his father was headmaster), before entering Balliol College, Oxford, to study modern history. At Oxford, Greene later said, he spent his time drunk and debt-ridden. In 1926 he joined the Roman Catholic church, perhaps to be closer to his future wife, Vivien Dayrell-Browning. Greene's ambivalent Roman Catholicism became central to his writing.

Before his marriage he took a position as a literary journalist with The Times of London, where he worked his way up to a sub-editorship. However, when his first novel, The Man Within, was published in 1929, he took the almost unheard of step of resigning his position to become a full-time author.

During his life Greene traveled extensively, often to political hotspots such as Vietnam, Kenya, Liberia, Haiti and Cuba.

movie poster for Greene's The Third Man

The British Intelligence Service sent him to Sierra Leone during World War II and he later worked under Kim Philby, who was subsequently revealed as a spy for the Soviets. Greene's travels satisfied his taste for adventure while providing background for his works.

Graham Greene spent the last years of his life in Vevey, Switzerland, where he died in 1991.

His works have been translated to the screen more than those of any other major twentieth century novelist, with more than thirty cinema and television films of his published works.

Successful movie adaptions include The End of The Affair, Brighton Rock, The Comedians and The Quiet American. Perhaps the most memorable is Carol Reed's 1950 version of The Third Man, directed by Orson Welles and starring Welles, Joseph Cotton, Alida Valli and Trevor Howard.

Greene was a member of the Order of Merit and a Companion of Honour.

Click here for a list of Graham Greene's works from the British Library