Larry Greene, born Patrick Lanahan, was a journalist and the brother of Harold Chorley. While he bore a striking similarity to his brother, he carried himself with more certainty and with less arrogance.
The two grew up in Monaghan, Northern Ireland with an abusive father. When Harold ("Harry") was seven, he accidentally killed his dad whilst trying to save Larry's life. He misremembered the incident, believing that Larry had killed their father on purpose.
As adults, both went into journalism - Patrick taking the name Larry Greene - and covered up their familial links, as well as working to give themselves English accents for their career. Greene could never fully erase the traces of his original accent.
For years, Chorley would threaten to reveal Larry's childhood manslaughter to get favours from him.
When the London Event started, Larry was offered to cover the events for the British government. He suggested that Harold should be chosen in his place, wanting to give him a chance at a big scoop. Harold was unaware of this. (PROSE: The Lost Skin)
He supported Chorley after the London Event, an act that almost ruined his career too. He was able to pull himself back up, and was enlisted by General Hamilton to help uncover the whereabouts of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart when he went missing in April 1969. Once he'd served his purpose, Larry was dumped. He didn't take it well, and began to set out his own feelers into what was going on, but was soon warned off. (PROSE: The Schizoid Earth)
Over a month later he found himself helping Lethbridge-Stewart when the colonel was on the run, but Larry's help came at a price. A promise to explain what happened to the colonel in April. Larry learned that Lethbridge-Stewart had been kidnapped and tortured by the Eastern Bloc, the official lie that Lethbridge-Stewart kept to. (PROSE: Mutually Assured Domination)
Near the end of 1969, Chorley was still trying to expose Lethbridge-Stewart and forcing Larry Greene to assist; Greene considered this a dangerous obsession that was ruining his brother's career, and that he was doing better after backing off. Further straining things was that his brother remained bitter and envious of Greene's own recent career successes. (PROSE: The Lost Skin)
By October 1969, Greene had interviewed Mary Wilde as part of a series of interviews with the "year's most interesting people". This was aired on Christmas Day (PROSE: Home for Christmas)
Notes[]
- In a talk with Nick Walters, Andy Frankham-Allen said Chorley's first appearance in the book range was meant to be Mutually Assured Domination but another writer had put Chorley in their drafts; to preserve the plan, he "basically changed him into a whole new character" that linked to Chorley.[1] This likely refers to Larry Greene, a journalist with close ties to Chorley appearing for the first time in Schizoid Earth.
Footnotes[]
- ↑ Youtube: "Writer's Talk with Nick Walters" 2nd June 2022