The Secret Life of Laszlo Almasy - The Real English Patient

Who was the real Laszlo Almasy, the `English Patient' portrayed in Michael Ondaatje's Booker-winning novel and the Oscar-winning film? Why was he more compelling in life than in fiction? A Hungarian aristocrat without a title, Almasy was consumed by his passion for the desert. He made many extraordinary forays by car and plane in search of a legendary lost oasis and became an expert in desert exploration in the Eastern Sahara. Yet when the Second World War broke out he was no longer welcome in British-controlled Egypt. In fact, for several years Britain had suspected Almasy of spying for the Italians, while the Italians thought he was spying for the British. The situation had been further confused by Almasy taking German `tourists' into the desert. Almasy's life before, during and after the war was marked by paradox and intrigue. His service with Rommel's Afrika Korps under the scrutiny of Britain's Bletchley Park code-breakers; his doomed homosexual affair with a young German soldier; his astonishing feats and failures in the desert war; his friendship with Unity Mitford; his postwar acquittal by a `People's Court' at the bidding of Hungary's communist dictator; and his subsequent flight to Egypt with the help of MI6. The portrait that Bierman creates of Laszlo Almasy is more intriguing and perplexing than the fictional Almasy of literature and film, bringing to life one of the Second World War's most enigmatic figures...