Rogue Males
Sir Richard Burton is best
known as an explorer and
trans
lator
of Arabian and Indian books, many of them sexually explicit.
He was known as "Ruffian Dick" and led a life well beyond the pale 
of
the typical Victorian. Richard Burton was a very famous actor with a
brilliant voice and the looks to accompany it. Sometimes
known as "Beer
Burton", he m
arried
Elizabeth Taylor twice and led a life which was
often as
dramatic as the characters that he played.
He used the alias "Mr Nice" and adopted
this as the title of a book that describes his exploits and ultimate
incarceration in
an American jail.
Each of these men has a roguish streak to their character, but they also have a number of other things in common – one of which is that they began their adult lives at Oxford University. In fact they attended three colleges which stand, cheek by jowl, on Oxford’s Broad Street: Exeter, Balliol and Trinity. Each was a master of disguise, though for rather different ends. Each was a great traveller, Howard for the drug trafficking, Richard for the film sets and Sir Richard for exploration and consular duties. They were all writers. Two of them were Welsh, two shared a name, two are dead, and all three are famous in their different ways. Finally, and importantly, they were all iconoclasts, mould breakers in different times and in different worlds, all three bequeathing something of significance to modern times.
This book illuminates the fascinating lives of each of these men, but also speculates on how they might react to each other. It recreates the Oxford that bred them, traces their subsequent lives, and then leads them back there so that they can meet, discuss and cavort. Their discussions are compelling and wide ranging; they include a spirited debate on the liberal society implied by Howard Marks' lifestyle, and the reactions of the Burtons, the Victorian explorer and the much married actor, to such a society.
In providing a multiple biography the book does question the authenticity of genre itself; but it also takes biography one stage further, moving smoothly from well-sourced fact into fiction, carrying the character of each man along the way. In doing so it airs some of today’s controversial topics, for example: American hegemony, the freedom to consume drugs, sexual loyalty, the value of education and the right to self-determination. These are exposed to the soaring intellectuality and conservatism of the older Burton, the articulation of the younger Burton and the liberality of Marks. This part of the book is based upon a pre-construction which took place in the city using three rogue "think-alikes". The results are sometimes shocking, always interesting, and often edifying.
The book itself is complete. It is just over 100,000 words in length and available in Microsoft Word format. Illustrations are optional; at present none are envisaged, though there is plenty of material available.