Aubrey Menen

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Aubrey Menen (in full Salvator Aubrey Clarence Menen) (born April 22, 1912 in London, died February 13, 1989 in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, Southern India) was an English writer of Irish and Indian parentage who was primarily a satirist. He was also a drama critic, theater director, advertising agency executive, and an alumnus of University College London. His essays and novels explore the nature of nationalism and the cultural contrast between his own Irish-Indian ancestry and his traditional British upbringing.

A quote: "There are three things which are real: God, human folly, and laughter. Since the first two pass our comprehension, we must do what we can with the third."

Asked to give advice to writers, Mr. Menen, who was admired as a satirist, told the publication Contemporary Authors that the aspiring writer should perform a daily physical exercise: He should sit on his bottom in front of a table equipped with writing materials, he said. If his top end fails him, at least his nether end won't.

"The Prevalence of Witches" takes place in an uncivilized area of India which he calls "Limbo", possibly an homage to the work by Aldous Huxley whom he explicitly acknolwedges in the book as one of the greatest writers of his time.

[edit] Works

  • The Prevalence of Witches (1947)
  • Dead Man in the Silver Market (1953)
  • The Ramayana, As Told by Aubrey Menen (1954)
  • The Abode of Love (1956)
  • Autobiography: The Space within the Heart (1970)
  • Cities in the Sand (1972)
  • Upon This Rock (1972)
  • The New Mystics and the True Indian Tradition (1974)
  • Art and Money (1980)
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