Look Down in Mercy

Walter Baxter
Walter Baxter from a 1951 publication
Born	(1915-05-17)17 May 1915 London, England
Died	25 July 1994(1994-07-25) (aged 79) Marlborough, Wiltshire, England
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	English
Notable works	Look Down in Mercy The Image and The Search
Partner	Fergus Provan

Walter Baxter (17 May 1915 – 25 July 1994) was an English novelist, best known for writing two controversial novels. His first novel received very positive reviews. He was prosecuted on obscenity charges after the publication of his second novel, but was acquitted after two trials. He was also a successful restaurateur.

Baxter was born in London and raised in Kent. He was educated at St. Lawrence College, Ramsgate and Trinity College, Cambridge where he studied law. He was articled to a solicitor in London before the war but following his service in the Army he never returned to the law. Baxter served in the British Army during the Second World War, as a company commander. The company fought in Burma, retreating to India. Later, he was aide-de-camp to Lieutenant General William Slim of the Fourteenth Army.

He came back to London after the war and briefly joined his family's business, but in September 1949 he decided to pursue a career in writing. A few months later he became a Catholic. He was close to completing his first book when he was presented with an opportunity to volunteer with the Jesuits as a missionary. He performed that work for seven months at a jungle mission station in a remote village about 40 miles (64 km) from Ranchi, India.

Baxter's first novel, Look Down in Mercy, published in 1951, drew on his military experience. Set in Burma and other Far East locations during World War II, it centres on the homosexual relationship between an officer, Tony Kent, and his batman Anson. Although Kent, a British officer stationed in Burma, loves his wife back in England, he seduces a Eurasian nurse. After the brief affair, he feels guilty and hates both the girl and himself. Later, during an especially stressful period, he spends a night with Anson and loses self-respect because of the homosexual act. The officer and the batman are captured after a Japanese attack. Kent initially divulges nothing more than his name, rank and serial number, but after being shown how his fellow soldiers had been tortured, and he is threatened with the same, he reveals to his Japanese interrogator all of the information he knows. After an air raid, Anson is able to escape, also saving Kent. Their relationship resumes, and Kent kills a soldier who has figured this out and tried to blackmail him. After the company has arrived in India, Kent attempts suicide, but when unsuccessful, finds himself happy to be alive, and to be with Anson.