Picture of author.

Bruce Chatwin (1940–1989)

Author of The Songlines

55+ Works 13,134 Members 276 Reviews 55 Favorited

About the Author

Works by Bruce Chatwin

The Songlines (1987) 3,525 copies
In Patagonia (1977) 3,250 copies
On the Black Hill (1982) 1,612 copies
What Am I Doing Here? (1988) 1,312 copies
Utz (1988) 1,289 copies
The Viceroy of Ouidah (1980) 710 copies
Patagonia Revisited (1986) 209 copies
Far Journeys (1993) 181 copies
Reis rond de aarde (2000) 12 copies
John Pawson (1998) 9 copies
The Novels (2017) 8 copies
La sagesse du nomade (2012) 8 copies
Op reis met... — Contributor — 6 copies
Oeuvres complètes (2005) 5 copies
La nostalgia del espacio (2002) 4 copies
The Attractions of France (1993) 3 copies
O Vice-Rei de Ajudá (2010) 3 copies
Rastro Dos Cantos, O (1996) 1 copy
Yeniden Patagonyada (2006) 1 copy
The Novels 1 copy
Drpor 1 copy
Einpacken und Abhauen (1997) 1 copy
Per Kirkeby (1992) 1 copy
[No title] 1 copy

Associated Works

Lady, Lisa Lyon (1983) — Text — 164 copies
Granta 21: The Story-Teller (1987) — Contributor — 156 copies
Granta 26: Travel (1989) — Contributor — 154 copies
Granta 24: Inside Intelligence (1988) — Contributor — 151 copies
The Norton Book of Personal Essays (1997) — Contributor — 142 copies
Journey to Armenia (1933) — Introduction, some editions — 132 copies
Granta 44: The Last Place on Earth (1993) — Contributor — 125 copies
Granta 10: Travel Writing (1984) — Contributor — 88 copies
Granta 147: 40th Birthday Special (2019) — Contributor — 56 copies
On the Black Hill [1988 film] — Original book — 3 copies

Tagged

20th century (147) Aborigines (140) Africa (73) anthology (51) anthropology (138) Argentina (184) Australia (429) autobiography (66) biography (77) British (79) British literature (88) Bruce Chatwin (155) Chatwin (67) Chile (85) English (57) English literature (177) essays (259) fiction (849) Folio Society (60) Granta (123) history (132) Latin America (60) literature (202) memoir (217) narrativa (52) non-fiction (574) novel (206) Patagonia (195) photography (61) read (115) short stories (63) South America (217) to-read (363) travel (1,598) travel literature (95) travel writing (190) travelogue (68) travels (56) UK (61) Wales (99)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Chatwin, Bruce
Legal name
Chatwin, Charles Bruce
Birthdate
1940-05-13
Date of death
1989-01-18
Burial location
ashes scattered near Kardamyli, Peloponnese, Greece
Gender
male
Nationality
UK
Country (for map)
UK
Birthplace
Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK
Place of death
Nice, France
Cause of death
a fungal infection, Talaromyces marneffei, It is now known as an AIDS-defining illness.
Places of residence
Birmingham, England, UK
London, England, UK
Education
Marlborough College
University of Edinburgh (no degree)
Occupations
art porter
journalist
travel writer
director, Sotheby's
Relationships
Leigh Fermor, Patrick (friend)
Chanler, Elizabeth (spouse)
Organizations
Sotheby's
The Sunday Times
Awards and honors
E. M. Forster Award (1979)
Short biography
Bruce Chatwin was born in 1940 in the Shearwood Road nursing home in Sheffield, England, and his first home was his grandparents' house in Dronfield, near Sheffield. His mother, Margharita (née Turnell), had moved back to her parents' home when Chatwin's father, Charles Chatwin, went away to serve with the Royal Naval Reserve.

Members

Discussions

BRITISH AUTHOR CHALLENGE - SHEFFIELD in 75 Books Challenge for 2017 (June 2017)
Songlines, From the Notebooks in Le Salon Littéraire du Peuple pour le Peuple (March 2012)
Songlines, Chapters 16-30 in Le Salon Littéraire du Peuple pour le Peuple (March 2012)
Songlines, Chapters 1-15 in Le Salon Littéraire du Peuple pour le Peuple (March 2012)
Songlines, by Bruce Chatwin in Le Salon Littéraire du Peuple pour le Peuple (February 2012)

Reviews

Chatwin takes us on a journey few will ever have the opportunity to match.
 
Flagged
ben_r47 | 90 other reviews | Feb 22, 2024 |
Very interesting read, fascinating, and quite wonderful. Chatwin interweaves his journey to observe a territorial issue between aboriginal tribes and a proposed train line, with thoughts, science, history, myth, lore, of all peoples origins in song. Life is a songline in which we doing ourselves, and all the things, into existence. Really interesting segue into the theories of human violence (innately offensive, defensive? A result of population and/or resources only—counter intuitively the less a people has the less violent they are, fascinating stuff). Personable and full of the quality I most love in humans and my limited ideas of "aboriginals": a sense of joy.… (more)
 
Flagged
BookyMaven | 56 other reviews | Dec 6, 2023 |
This really is a book to get lost in, and it has had an immense influence overseas in popularising Aboriginal Australian culture. (Rory Stewart, for instance, recalls this book as the one that made English travel writing "cool".) A rambling yarn, tangents upon tangents, unpleasant viewpoints and hopeful ideas mingling together like dyes being poured into a vat.

The situation is more complex now - some would say problematic but I'd argue that's going too far. Chatwin's time in Australia was fairly brief, his subjects sometimes ironic or perhaps even outright false (to be fair, he acknowledges this), and his attempt to understand an issue that Australians themselves were still grappling with in the 1980s was always going to be deeply flawed. Still, it has its place in the history, and its rather basic overview of one particular aspect of Aboriginal life - even if it is drawn without any shadow or nuance - is an intriguing viewpoint on Australia from an outsider.… (more)
 
Flagged
therebelprince | 56 other reviews | Oct 24, 2023 |
Hmmm. Didnt know what to expect from my first "Bruce Chatwin", but this wasnt it. Lots of little snippits - most chapters less than 2 pages long - I got very little idea of Patagonia as a place, there seemed to be very little focus or a line being followed.[return][return]Plenty of characters but couldnt tell how they related to each other (if at all) or how they related to Chatwin. Most interesting things were the longer chapters, such as those on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, who spent several years in Patagonia before disappearing off into the sunset… (more)
 
Flagged
nordie | 90 other reviews | Oct 14, 2023 |

Lists

Awards

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Nicholas Shakespeare Introduction, Editor
Paul Theroux Contributor
Ann E. Farkas Joint Author.
William Dalrymple Introduction
Redmond O'Hanlon Contributor
Martha Gellhorn Contributor
Reinhold Messner Contributor
Eric Newby Contributor
Lou Lichtveld Contributor
George Monbiot Contributor
Norman Lewis Contributor
August Willemsen Contributor
Nicolaas Verschuur Contributor
Ronald Jonkers Translator
Peter Bergsma Translator
Umberto Eco Contributor
Edith Wharton Contributor
Kees Mercks Translator
Yond Boeke Translator
Barbara de Lange Translator
Peter Out Translator
Heleen ten Holt Translator
Henny Vlot Translator
H. W. J. Schaap Translator
Peter van Oers Translator
Patty Krone Translator
Rita Vermeer Translator
Nettie Vink Translator
Anaïs Nin Contributor
Doris Lessing Contributor
Tobias Wolff Contributor
Nadine Gordimer Contributor
Fay Weldon Contributor
Thomas Bernhard Contributor
Patrick McGrath Contributor
Bohumil Hrabal Contributor
Italo Calvino Contributor
Elke Heidenreich Contributor
Jacob Groot Translator
Jan Gielkens Translator
Margaret Atwood Contributor
Patrick Süskind Contributor
Anna Kamp Translator
Fred Marcellino Cover artist
Eelco Hesse Translator
Marina Marchesi Translator
José Luís Luna Translator
Hugh Fraser Narrator
Jacques Chabert Translator
David Bergen Cover artist
Monica Barnett Contributor
神保 睦 Translator
池 央耿 Translator
Osamu Ikeuchi Translator
Jan Wahlén Translator

Statistics

Works
55
Also by
13
Members
13,134
Popularity
#1,776
Rating
½ 3.8
Reviews
276
ISBNs
404
Languages
22
Favorited
55

Charts & Graphs