Roger Peyrefitte
| Roger Peyrefitte | |
|---|---|
| Born |
17 August 1907 Castres, Tarn, France |
| Died | 5 November 2000 (aged 93) Paris, France |
| Occupation | novelist |
| Nationality | French |
| Notable works |
Les Amitiés particulières Trilogy about Alexander the Great |
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Roger Peyrefitte (French pronunciation: [ʁɔʒe pɛʁfit]; 17 August 1907 – 5 November 2000) was a French diplomat, writer of bestseller novels and gossipy non-fiction, and a defender of gay rights.
Born in Castres, Tarn, to a wealthy family, Peyrefitte went to Jesuit and Lazarist boarding schools and then studied language and literature in the University of Toulouse. After graduating first of his year from Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris in 1930, he worked as an embassy secretary in Athens between 1933 and 1938. Back in Paris, he had to resign in 1940 for personal reasons before being reintegrated in 1943 and finally ending his diplomatic career in 1945. In his novels, he often treated controversial themes and his work put him at odds with the Roman Catholic church.
He wrote openly about his homoerotic experiences in boarding school in his 1943 first novel Les amitiés particulières (Particular Friendships—a term used in seminaries to refer to friendships seen as too close and exclusive, often incorrectly translated as "Special Friendships"), which won the coveted prix Renaudot in 1944. The book was made into a film of the same name which was released in 1964. On the set, Peyrefitte met the 12-year-old Alain-Philippe Malagnac d'Argens de Villèle; Peyrefitte tells the story of their relationship in Notre amour ("Our Love" - 1967) and L'Enfant de cœur ("Child of the Heart" - 1978). Malagnac later married performer Amanda Lear.
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