Quick Facts
Biography
Avro Manhattan (1914–1990) was a writer, primarily known for his criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church. Having covered various political topics throughout his career, Manhattan is perhaps best remembered as the author of several works discussing the Vatican's role in world politics and global affairs.
Life
Born in Milan, Italy on April 6, 1914 to American and Swiss/Dutch parents of Jewish extraction, Manhattan was educated at the Sorbonne and the London School of Economics.
During World War II, Manhattan was jailed in Italy for refusing to serve in Benito Mussolini's fascist army. Later during the war, he operated a radio station called "Radio Freedom" broadcasting to nations occupied by the Axis Powers.
His friends included H G Wells, Pablo Picasso, George Bernard Shaw and scientist Marie Stopes.
Manhattan spent much of his later life after 1979 at the ornately decorated home of his wife's late mother in South Shields, North East England.
He is buried in Blackhill cemetery in Consett, England.
Works
Manhattan authored more than 20 books, including The Vatican in World Politics. It has been translated into most major languages, including Chinese, Russian and most recently, Korean. Some of his other popular works include The Vatican Billions, The Vatican's Holocaust, and The Vatican-Moscow-Washington Alliance. Some of his books which are especially critical of the Vatican and of Roman Catholicism.
The following is a list of Avro Manhattan's most notable works, ordered chronologically:
- The Rumbling of the Apocalypse (1934)
- Towards the new Italy (Preface by H.G. Wells) (1943)
- Latin America and the Vatican (1946)
- The Catholic Church Against the Twentieth Century (1947; 2nd edition 1950)
- The Vatican in Asia (1948)
- Religion in Russia (1949)
- Vatican in World Politics (1949)
- Catholic Imperialism and World Freedom (1952; 2nd edition 1959)
- Terror Over Yugoslavia, the Threat to Europe (1953)
- The Dollar and the Vatican (1956)
- Vatican Imperialism in the Twentieth Century (1965)
- The Vatican-Moscow-Washington Alliance (1982)
- The Vatican Billions (1983)
- Catholic Terror in Ireland (1988)
- Vietnam... Why Did We Go? The Shocking Story of the Catholic "Church's" Role in Starting the Vietnam War (1984)
- Murder in the Vatican, American Russian and Papal Plots (1985)
- The Vatican’s Holocaust (1986)
- The Dollar and the Vatican (1988)