Graham Greene's reputation as a novelist has declined sharply, yet biographical interest in him remains high, for the moment at least. William Cash chronicles his love-affair with the wealthy wife of a Labour politician, Catherine Walston, which began in 1947 and lies behind much of his best-known novel, The End of the Affair. Greene had an unhappy marriage, while Catherine had an "open" one, meaning in short that she had many affairs. He took their relationship seriously enough to urge her to get a divorce and marry him, but she preferred a home-base from which to roam - the attitude of so many society women. There can be little doubt that Greene was deeply in love and suffered equally deeply, but ultimately he was lucky enough that things ended as they did. The blurb calls it "one of the 20th century's most epic romances," which seems an inexcusable piece of hyperbole.