Spoils of War

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This fascinating autobiography tells of the author-playwright Peter Rowley's transatlantic life and the tragedies involving his two English half-brothers, John and George.

The Rowleys were a wealthy family from Huntingdonshire, now a part of Cambridgeshire, who become engulfed by the second World War. The oldest brother, John, suffered a breakdown at Dunquerque, was jilted by his girl friend, attempted suicide and became incarcerated in an asylum. But he was the heir, and soon-to-be Lord of the Manor of St. Neots, Huntingdonshire and Morcott, Rutland. George remained in one of the manor houses.

The youngest sibling, Peter, was take to America in the last convoy of the European part of the War. As an eleven year old he describes his impressions of friendly midwesterners. His step-father, a domineering American Air Force colonel, moves Peter and his mother to an Alabama air base commanded by a general who wanted to drop a nuclear bomb on Moscow. There are adventures in a boarding school in North Carolina, notable for its hypocrisy and repressed sexuality and an account of his undergraduate years at Princeton - described as "a glorified prep school" - including brief glimpses of Donald Rumsfeld, Ralph Nader, and Audrey Hepburn.

After three years Peter left Princeton and began a newspaper career for several years in New England and London. Gradually the truth about John's life in a sanitarium emerges, as the author resumes living in the U.K. He learns of the strange private life of his other half-brother, George.

He returns to America. There are accounts of the author's personal dilemma during the Cuban Missile crisis of 1962, a trip to Hollywood including a night at Jane Wyatt's house and a lunch at a successful producer's Bel Air mansion. There are also vignettes of old "society" New York.

As part of the author's search for the meaning of life there is a portrayal of South Africa during the apartheid era, including interviews with two leading figures who were subsequently assassinated by the South African secret police. Simultaneously Peter attempts to bring order to his English family's existence. There are lawsuits and a dramatic meeting with his insane relation who the author had not seen for 28 years.

Peter becomes involved in the anti-Vietnam war movement, becoming a supporter of Dan Berrigan, the priest who burns draft board files. Before going to jail Berrigan marries Peter to a beautiful Hungarian, Terez, also a refugee from war.

The book ends with the couple trying to arrange for a well-know psychiatrist in London to treat the tragic "spoil of war," Second Lieutenant John Rowley of The Priory sanatorium in west London.