a novel in 1949 and concerned the activities of escaped British prisoners of war in France during World War II. Honours and reputation He was awarded the French Légion d'honneur in 1936, a promotion in 1945, and was elected a member of the Institut de France in 1949. From 1953 to 1956 he was the President of PEN International, the worldwide association of writers. While Morgan enjoyed an immense reputation during his lifetime, particularly in France, and was awarded the 1940 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, he was sometimes criticised for excessive seriousness, and for some time he was rather neglected; he once claimed that the "sense of humour by which we are ruled avoids emotion and vision and grandeur of spirit as a weevil avoids the sun. It has banished tragedy from our theatre, eloquence from our debates, glory from our years of peace, splendour from our wars..." The character Gerard Challis in Stella Gibbons's Westwood is thought to be a caricature of him. His posthumous reputation was initially higher in France than in Britain, but has begun a new rise in recent years with the republication of various novels (including Capuchin Classics' The Voyage with an Introduction by Oxford's Valentine Cunningham in 2009), his poetry (edited by Peter Holland for Scarthin Books in 2008) and an edition of his plays published by Oberon Books in 2013. He was a consummate and committed stylist, from newspaper reviews to major novels a passionate craftsman of English prose. He was also very popular in Italy, especially in the 1950s. He spent long periods in the North, and in Tuscany. He wrote and set Sparkenbroke in Lucca. Literary connection Morgan employed Esmé Valerie Fletcher as his private secretary when she moved to London from Leeds in her determination to enter London literary circles and find a way to meet T. S. Eliot, her future husband. She acknowledged her gratitude to Morgan for providing her with her first opportunity, and later spoke of her respect for him as an author in private discussions with her family and friends. Major works Novels The Gunroom (1919) My Name is Legion (1925) Portrait in a Mirror (1929) The Fountain (1932) Sparkenbroke (1936) The Voyage (1940) The Empty Room (1941) The Judge's Story (1947) The River Line (1949) A Breeze of Morning (1951) Challenge to Venus (1957) Plays The Flashing Stream (1938) The River Line