THE WORLD, THE FLESH AND MYSELF
by Michael Davidson

Michael Davidson (1897-1975) was an English foreign correspondent widely respected for his intelligence, keen observation and sympathy for the underdog. He joined the Berlin communists against Hitler, crossed wartime Morocco in Arab disguise, and opposed the British authorities in Malaya and Cyprus. This autobiography, published in 1962 in an England where homosexuality was still illegal and widely reviled, caused a sensation with its opening sentence, “This is the life-history of a lover of boys,” but impressed many with its candid accounts of his journalistic and sexual adventures.

“the twofold story of a courageous and lovable person’s struggle to come to terms with his Grecian heresy and of a brilliant journalist’s fight against colonial jingoism.” – Arthur Koestler (author of Darkness at Noon), The Observer.

“Mr. Davidson … is one of the frankest of autobiographers, and, as he is also a writer of impressive skill and sensibility, he has produced an uncommonly readable book.” –The Times Literary Supplement.

“Candour and forthrightness are rarely found in autobiographies. Mr. Davidson is the happy exception.” – John Davenport, The Observer.

One of the books that were “the only salvation and sense in my life” and “reflected my own emotional turmoil and my own circumstances.” – Stephen Fry on himself as a teenager, Moab Is My Washpot.

After being taken on by seven different publishers in three countries, The World, The Flesh and Myself went out-of-print for a quarter of a century.

This new edition includes an introduction by the author’s close friend, the artist and writer Colin Spencer, and fascinating biographical notes on the main characters mentioned (gathered mostly from Davidson’s private correspondence) by novelist Edmund Marlowe.

The paperback version of The World, the Flesh and Myself can be bought from amazon.co.uk for £11.99, from amazon.com for $16.49, and from every other Amazon branch for a roughly equivalent sum.

A Kindle version can likewise be bought from amazon.co.uk for £7.99, from amazon.com for $9.99, and from every other Amazon branch for a roughly equivalent sum.