LONDON - One hundred years after his birth, Graham Greene's writings still excite discussion. But what excites even more is talk about his sex life.
As scholars gather this week to mark the centenary of the novelist's birth on Oct. 2, 1904, an explicit new biography has overshadowed consideration of Greene's literary legacy and renewed interest in the author's tempestuous personal life and voracious sexual appetite.
Thirteen years after his death, his 100th birthday is being marked by events mapping the treacherous topography of ''Greeneland'' -- the seedy, piquant landscape of compromised spies, troubled priests and everyday sinners created by Greene in his works. There's an exhibition of Greeneabilia at the British Library and a weeklong conference in his hometown of Berkhamstead, northwest of London, featuring discussions of Greene's contribution to cinema, his Catholicism, his debt to Joseph Conrad and his relationship with Charlie Chaplin.
There's even a stage musical of Greene's seaside thriller, Brighton Rock, opening Tuesday at London's Almeida Theatre. The show is directed by Michael Attenborough, whose father, Richard, starred in the 1947 film of the novel.
And there's the final volume of Norman Sherry's monumental biography, The Life of Graham Greene, covering the years from 1955 until Greene's death in 1991 at age 86.
Sherry, Greene's authorized biographer, spent more than 20 years retracing the writer's journeys and plowing through his papers for the exhaustive three-volume work, whose first volume was published in 1989.
Sherry, a professor at Trinity University in San Antonio, explores Greene's large literary output, bouts of depression, struggles with faith and formidable sex drive. It is those intimate sections that have attracted the most interest. Sherry calls Greene ''a sexual raider'' who ''continued to cross the line, to break taboos'' throughout his life.
''Brothels fascinated Greene,'' notes the biographer, who reproduces Greene's list of 47 favorite prostitutes; Greene gave the women such nicknames as Russian Boots and Bond Street French.
The Graham Greene Birthplace Trust is at www.grahamgreenebt.org
