From the UK Tablet

It is difficult now for most Catholic readers – let alone secular ones – to comprehend how central Catholicism was to the English novel written by authors born just before the First World War, who published their major works around the time of the Second. Greene, Waugh and Spark declared their religious affiliation on dust-jacket flaps and, in the case of the two men, their books frequently involved liturgical or doctrinal plot-twists.

Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited and Greene’s Brighton Rock, The Heart Of The Matter and The End Of The Affair all feature implied celestial conclusions or interventions. Brideshead, though often remembered from television as a tale about toffs with teddy-bears, was intended to explore the workings of divine grace, while The End Of The Affair hinges on two miracles, although Greene later revised the narrative to make it less supernatural.

Even so, while it is common to view Greene as a novelist of religious doubt, his major characters tend to be believers: their belief in the genuine possibility of damnation drives their tragedies.