A Fighting Withdrawal : The Life of Dan Davin: Writer, Soldier, Publisher Book

Ovenden draws on public and private papers to paint a compelling portrait of Dan Davin, OUP's Academic Publisher. He charts one man's growth against the background of war and the literary-intellectual milieu of post-war London and Oxford. A New Zealander, Davin originally came to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. During the Second World War he fought in Crete, and, later, wrote the campaign's official history. As a novelist he befriended contemporary writers such as Louis MacNeice, and Joyce Cary among others. In this fascinating biography Davin emerges as a man with a complex public and private life, beset in later life by depression and alcoholism.