Now THAT’s a life: Louis Herren

“When a politician tells you something in confidence, always ask yourself Why is this lying bastard lying to me?”

Always good advice, I think.

Louis Heren, the guy behind it, led an extra-ordinary life.  And I’d never heard of him.

Louis Philip Heren (6 February 1919 – 26 January 1995) was a foreign correspondent. He spent his entire career on The Times and was an author of political theory, memoirs and autobiography.

Heren was born in the East End of London. His father, a printer on The Times, died when Heren was four years old. As it was a paternalistic company in those days, Heren was able to leave school at 14 to begin work as a messenger on the newspaper. He moved up to work in various departments before the onset of World War II. He joined the British Army as a private soldier in 1939, commissioned and served in France, the Western Desert, Burma and the Netherlands East Indies. After being demobbed as a major in 1946, he returned to The Times and was made a foreign correspondent.

Here’s the Indie’s obit.

There’s five minutes of footage of him being interviewed in 1972 about growing up in the East End in the 20s and 30s…

Clearly gonna have to read his books, and re-read  Greene’s ‘The Quiet American’