Olivia Manning


Manning, Olivia,

1911–80, English novelist, b. Portsmouth, Hampshire. During World War II she served as a journalist in the Middle East. She is best known for her "Balkan trilogy": The Great Fortune (1960), The Spoilt City (1962), and Friends and Heroes (1966). These novels concern a British diplomat and his wife in Eastern Europe during World War II, and they brilliantly juxtapose historical and personal events.