[7] His novel A Ball in Venice, about a comic struggle between an Englishman, an American millionairess, an art critic, and the Communist mayor, was published in 1953.
In it the character of Mr Sanderson tries to commercialise the Balkan state of "Blagoland" and this leads to conflict with a British consul who is determined to respect the people's culture and Islamic faith.
Forbes had previously worked with General Edward Spears in Damascus and had been an ambulance driver across Africa, earning the Croix de Guerre.
Rhodes translated several books such as Egyptian and Ancient Eastern Painting and the memoirs of the former Moroccan monarch King Hassan, with whom he struck up a friendship.
[13] Between 1973 and 1992 Rhodes published, through the encouragement of a Papal Nuncio, three history books under the series title The Power of Rome in the Twentieth Century, the product of five years of research using the archives available at the Vatican and Bonn.
[14] The first volume in the trilogy, The Vatican in the Age of Dictators 1922-45 earned the praise of Rebecca West, who considered it “scrupulously fair and informative on matters obscured by the mutterings of fools”.
[15] The second volume of the series, The Vatican in the Age of Liberal Democracies, 1870-1922, was published in 1983 and drew upon the recently released archive material of Pope Leo XIII’s reign.