Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc (Pearce)
Hilaire Belloc is one of the most important writers of the twentieth century. At turns reviled or revered, depending on the audience, he was a razor sharp social commenter and a master of both poetry and prose, who continues to captivate readers. In Old Thunder, Joseph Pearce examines Belloc’s enduring impact on British intellectual life.
Along the way, Pearce uncovers Belloc’s relationships with Chesterton, Waugh, and Sassoon, among others. Pearce also illuminates another side of Belloc’s personality by relaying his long courtship with Elodie Hogan, her brief stint in a convent, and his ultimate grief at her death.
In this updated biography, with a new introduction by Dale Alhquist, Joseph Pearce uses previously unpublished letters and photographs to reveal in Belloc a romantic, complex, and solitary man, who is one of the true giants of the Catholic revival in the last century.
Joseph Pearce is Writer in Residence and Visiting Fellow at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, NH. He is a renowned biographer whose books include Candles in the Dark: The Authorized Biography of Fr. Ho Lung, Missionaries of the Poor (Saint Benedict Press, 2012); Through Shakespeare's Eyes: Seeing the Catholic Presence in the Plays (Ignatius Press, 2010); and Tolkien: Man and Myth, a Literary Life (HarperCollins, 1998). He is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Higher Education from Thomas More College for the Liberal Arts and the Pollock Award for Christian Biography. He is co-editor of the St. Austin Review, editor-in-Chief of Ignatius Press Critical Editions, and editor-in-Chief of Sapientia Press.
