Promotional Information

Bruce Chatwin was, in his life as in his art, forever in search of the extraordinary, the exotic and the unexpected.

About the Author

Bruce Chatwin was born in Sheffield in 1940. After attending Marlborough School he began work as a porter at Sotheby's. Eight years later, having become one of Sotheby's youngest directors, he abandoned his job to pursue his passion for world travel. Between 1972 and 1975 he worked for the Sunday Times, before announcing his next departure in a telegram- 'Gone to Patagonia for six months.' This trip inspired the first of Chatwin's books, In Patagonia, which won the Hawthornden Prize and the E.M. Forster Award and launched his writing career. Two of his books have been made into feature films- The Viceroy of Ouidah (retitled Cobra Verde), directed by Werner Herzog, and Andrew Grieve's On the Black Hill. On publication The Songlines went straight to Number 1 in the Sunday Times bestseller list and remained in the top ten for nine months. On the Black Hill won the Whitbread First Novel Award while his novel Utz was nominated for the 1988 Booker Prize. He died in January 1989, aged forty-eight.

Reviews

As a writer he was unclassifiably interesting: lucid, ironic, cool. He seemed to owe nothing to anybody.
*Sunday Times*

Chatwin is equally fascinating on places. He goes yeti-hunting in Nepal, and magnificently evokes the Himalayas' seductive harshness. He visits Afghanistan in the steps of his own favourite writer, Robert Byron, and reveals something no current news report ever succeeds in doing why anyone should want to spend time in that beautiful, tormented land...human existence at least as Chatwin sees it is gloriously open-ended, unpredictable and exotic
*Sunday Times*

One of its chief delights is that it contains so many of its author'sbest anecdotes, his choicest performances
*Observer*

I like the combination of its far-reaching quality and the minute precision with which his thoughts are charted
*Sunday Times*

All the writing in this volume demonstrates Bruce Chatwin’s loathing of the humdrum, the dreary, the predictable. What attracted him was the unusual, the weird and wonderful… the journalist in him (strongly present) knew a good story when it heard one
*Guardian*

As one reads it one cannot forget it was compiled by a uniquely gifted writer in the face of death, urgently pinning down experiences important to him. All that might suggest a scrapbook, but as a legendary traveller and observer of people Chatwin had more to put into his than most
*Mail on Sunday*

YA --A collection of personal essays reflective of a life lived with curiosity and wonder. Whether writing about travels with Indira Gandhi as she politicks her way through India or discussions with an Austrian autodidact and botanist in China who inspired Ezra Pound, Chatwin creates accessible yet literate portraits of people and places, often with an unforgettable turn of phrase or image. His personal adventures are exciting; he writes of many unexpected discoveries and delights. There are essays on his friendships with Andre Malraux and filmmaker Werner Herzog, descriptions of the riddles of the Yeti, and many other topics. Chatwin led an interesting life and found irony and humor in his subjects, whether they were famous or not. It is a gift to his readers that he could write about them so beautifully. --Barbara Weathers, Duchesne Academy, Houston

Whether he is cruising down the Volga, gauging the effects of French colonialism in Algeria or searching for the Yeti (``Abominable Snowman'') in the Himalayas, Chatwin, who died recently, exudes natural curiosity and a nose for adventure. By the author of In Patagonia and The Songlines , this mosaic of travelogues, profiles, semi-fictionalized stories and fragments is an endless feast, rich in small discoveries and larger perceptions of the world. In India, Chatwin investigates the case of a ``wolf-boy'' who survived years living in the wild. In Hong Kong he meets a geomancer, who determines the best site for a building or a marriage bed by aligning it with the Earth's ``dragon-lines.'' There are pieces on art auctioneering, nomads, Afghanistan, a California LSD guru who thinks he's the Savior, power politics in ancient China. There are also perceptive encounters with filmmaker Werner Herzog, Nadezhda Mandelstam, Indira Gandhi, Andre Malraux, couturier Madeleine Vionnet and many others. (Sept.)

As a writer he was unclassifiably interesting: lucid, ironic, cool. He seemed to owe nothing to anybody. -- Colin Thubron * Sunday Times *
Chatwin is equally fascinating on places. He goes yeti-hunting in Nepal, and magnificently evokes the Himalayas' seductive harshness. He visits Afghanistan in the steps of his own favourite writer, Robert Byron, and reveals something no current news report ever succeeds in doing why anyone should want to spend time in that beautiful, tormented land...human existence at least as Chatwin sees it is gloriously open-ended, unpredictable and exotic * Sunday Times *
One of its chief delights is that it contains so many of its author'sbest anecdotes, his choicest performances -- Salman Rushdie * Observer *
I like the combination of its far-reaching quality and the minute precision with which his thoughts are charted -- Rose Tremain * Sunday Times *
All the writing in this volume demonstrates Bruce Chatwin's loathing of the humdrum, the dreary, the predictable. What attracted him was the unusual, the weird and wonderful... the journalist in him (strongly present) knew a good story when it heard one -- Margaret Forster * Guardian *