The Modern Novel

Biography

Bruce Chatwin was born in 1940 in Sheffield but grew up in Birmingham He went to the British public school Marlborough and then went to work for Sotheby’s art department. After working there for eight years, he started an archeology course at Edinburgh University but dropped out after two years and then went to work for the Sunday Times. While at Sotheby’s he married Elizabeth Chanler who also worked there. They separated after fifteen years but resumed their relationship towards the end of his life. When interviewing the ninety-three year old designer Eileen Gray, he was persuaded to go to Patagonia, which led to his first book. He went on to write several travel books, particularly about remote places, as well as two novels, also with remote settings. He died of a “rare Chinese disease” (which was, in fact, AIDS) in 1989.

Books about Bruce Chatwin

Susannah Clapp: With Chatwin Portrait of a Writer
Nicholas Murray: Bruce Chatwin
Nicholas Shakespeare: Bruce Chatwin

Other links

Bruce Chatwin
Bruce Chatwin
Featured Author: Bruce Chatwin
“Bruce Chatwin: A Biography” (review of the Shakespeare biography but lots about Chatwin)
In Search of the Miraculous (on Chatwin’s travel writing)