'English Patient' twist

The World War II spy who inspired the womanising hero in Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel and the Oscar-winning film The English Patient was homosexual and in love with a young soldier, according to letters discovered in Germany.

Intimate correspondence penned by Hungarian-born adventurer Count Laszlo de Almasy, portrayed in the film by Ralph Fiennes, shows he had a relationship with a soldier called Hans Entholt.

The Heinrich Barth Institute for African Studies in Cologne has made the claim after discovering the letters.

A member of the institute's staff told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine the letters show he had several homosexual relationships: "Egyptian princes were among Almasy's lovers."

Entholt, an officer in the Wehrmacht, died during Rommel's retreat from Africa after stepping on one of his side's landmines.