Nicholas Mosley brings the unblinking probing of a scientist to bear on
the workings of the writer's imagination. The result is a constantly
stimulating, frequently startling, and always cheerfully unorthodox
autobiography. As a novelist, biographer, editor, and screenwriter,
Nicholas Mosley has always been concerned with the central paradox of
writing: if by definition fiction is untrue, and biography never
complete, is there a form that will enable a writer to get at the truth
of a life? In Efforts at Truth Mosley scrutinizes his own life and work,
but examines them as a curious observer, fascinated by the constant
interaction of reality and the written word. As a life, it has been
colorful, in settings ranging from the West Indies to a remote Welsh
hill farm, from war action in Italy to battles with Hollywood moguls,
from the Colony Room to the House of Lords. In print, the range has been
as wide: editor of a controversial religious magazine, author of the
acclaimed novel series Catastrophe Practice, screenwriter of his own
work with Joe Losey and John Frankenheimer, biographer of his notorious
father Oswald Mosley, and, in 1990, winner of the Whitbread Award for
his novel Hopeful Monsters. Efforts at Truth, Mosley's distinctive
autobiography, brings together the singular life and intricate mind of
an important, multifaceted writer.
