TO THOMAS ROE

Thomas Roe (b. 1917) was a solicitor and tax consultant with Mafia connections, who swindled Greene, Noël Coward and Charlie Chaplin. On his advice, Greene and Heinemann entered a deal with Penguin for paperback rights in ten of his novels, bringing Greene an advance of £33,750. This was to be paid into Roe’s company, Co-Productions Roturman S.A., which would, in turn, agree to pay Greene an annuity, then transfer both rights and obligations to Verdant S.A., Greene’s holding company in Switzerland. The object of the transaction, which came to involve more and more offshore companies, was to allow Greene to escape at least surtax and perhaps other tax obligations.²⁷When Roe’s operation came to the attention of the authorities, Greene found himself in a dispute with the Inland Revenue, which ended in his becoming a tax exile from 1 January 1966.

C.6 Albany, | London, W.1. | 28th September 1961

Dear Tom,

I have now spoken to Laurence Pollinger and to Frere and there seems no reason at all against my selling to Roturman’s my paperback rights on the basis which we discussed, i.e., that I should receive in effect a pension beginning at the age of 60 in October 1964 of £1,500 a year for 15 years payable to myself or in the event of my death to my next of kin or anyone to whom I assigned the sum in my will. Perhaps now you would make a contract with me on those terms.

Yours ever,
Graham

TO FLANN O’BRIEN

Flann O’Brien was the most famous of the pseudonyms of Brian O’Nolan (1911–66), an Irish novelist and journalist renowned for his prose, his wit and his consumption of whiskey.

25th October 1961

Dear Mr. O’Brien

I was delighted this morning to receive a copy of The Hard Life from your publishers and to find it dedicated to me. I’m a proud man! At Swim Two Birds²⁸has remained to my mind ever since it first appeared one of the best books of our century. But my God what a long time it has been waiting for the next.

Yours
Graham Greene

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 904