Greene suffered from bipolar disorder which had a profound effect on his writing and personal life. In a letter to his wife Vivien he told her that he had a character profoundly antagonistic to ordinary domestic life, and that "unfortunately, the disease is also one s material". william Golding described Greene as " the ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century man 's consciousness and anxiety• Greene suffered from bipolar disorder, which had a profound effect on his writing and personal life. In a letter to his wife Vivien, he told her that he had "a character profoundly antagonistic to ordinary domestic life", and that "unfortunately, the disease is also one's material". William Golding described Greene as "the ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century man's consciousness and anxiety