Roderic Fenwick Owen

This is the abridged version of the author's autobiography - a million words reduced to a mere 566 pages, which is probably enough. Roderick Fenwick Owen (RFO) lived quite the life, travelling extensively in the middle part of the 20th century, having some remarkable experiences and meeting a host of interesting/famous characters - a year married to a Tahitian 'princess' and time spent as court poet to the ruler of Abu Dhabi, just a the oil boom was getting under way, stand out. However, the leitmotif that runs throughout is RFO's preoccupation with sex. He views most contacts through a sexual lens, never hesitating to recount and muse over this or that aspect of an encounter. Various liaisons with women but also frequent visits to Turkish Baths and long-term gay relationships pepper this highly spiced volume. Still, the adventures, insights and (it seems) ruthless honesty of RFO's life story make for a rollicking read.… (more)