Bruce Chatwin Read online

  About the Author

  * * *

  Nicholas Shakespeare is the author of The Vision of Elena Silves (1989), winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, The High Flyer, for which he was nominated one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 1993, and The Dancer Upstairs which was chosen by the American Libraries Association as the best novel of 1997. Between 1991–8 he journeyed in the tracks of Bruce Chatwin to research this authorised biography.

  ALSO BY NICHOLAS SHAKESPEARE

  The Vision of Elena Silves

  The High Flyer

  The Dancer Upstairs

  ‘A triumph’

  D.J. Taylor, Times Literary Supplement

  ‘Nicholas Shakespeare’s eagerly awaited biography is quite fascinating’

  Peter Lewis, Daily Mail

  ‘An epic piece of work of immense fascination . . . In awe-inspiring detail and with a rounding-out of all the other characters, Shakespeare takes us successively through the milieux of Chatwin’s life . . . Our trustworthy guide on this magnificent ghastly safari hardly puts a foot wrong’

  Duncan Fallowell, The Times

  ‘Nicholas Shakespeare has tracked [Chatwin’s] restless ghost all over the world to make this brilliant connection between how he lived and how he wrote . . . So much of his life was devoted to deliberate obfuscation that the arrival, ten years after his death, of a convincing and coherent portrait is cause for celebration’

  Colin Donald, The Scotsman

  ‘In Nicholas Shakespeare, Chatwin has found, posthumously, the right biographer. This is a magnificent work of empathy and detection . . . Shakespeare’s biography looks set to be the definitive study. It is hard to see how it will be superceded’

  Colin Thubron, Sunday Times

  ‘Quite simply, one of the most beautifully written, painstakingly researched and cleverly constructed biographies written this decade. Shakespeare has a quite extraordinary empathy for his subject, whom he portrays with humour, warmth and an eye for telling detail, creating a book almost as original, intelligent and observant as those written by Chatwin himself

  William Dalrymple, Literary Review

  ‘I take my scalpel off to Nicholas Shakespeare. Biographies don’t come any better than this . . . Eight years in the writing, Bruce Chatwin is a glorious quilt-work of texts, voices and places, joined together with consummate judgment’

  Justin Wintle, Financial Times

  ‘Nicholas Shakespeare’s scrupulously impartial analysis of this most complex man is to my mind quite brilliant’

  Catherine Hickman, New Statesman

  ‘It is so difficult to have any sense of another person’s inner life, but in this vastly enjoyable book, Shakespeare successfully shines the torch on to a psychic landscape peopled by the fearful monsters that Chatwin kept mostly at bay by continually moving and reinventing himself’

  Sara Wheeler, Independent

  ‘This excellent . . . biography is very far removed from Chatwin’s own anecdotal concision. However, it is fantastically difficult to fashion a narrative out of the inchoate facts of someone’s life. Shakespeare has managed to pull it off’

  Ian Thomson, Guardian

  ‘Shakespeare must be praised for his energy, his always lucid presentation, and – above all – for his mostly poker-faced willingness to leave us as suspiciously intrigued by his strange subject as we were before’

  Ian Hamilton, Sunday Telegraph

  ‘Nicholas Shakespeare’s biography of Chatwin sweeps aside years of speculation and hearsay and gives us as intimate a picture of this enigmatic author as we can ever hope to have . . . Out of the biography emerges something that never came out of Chatwin’s own work, nor the myths that surrounded him: a complete person, warts and all . . . utterly compelling’

  Philip Marsden, Mail on Sunday

  ‘One of those rare biographies which takes us step by step through a life so far from humdrum that we close its pages muttering, with Hamlet, “what a piece of work is a man”’

  Chris Gray, Oxford Times

  ‘I bought this because I am an admirer of Nicholas Shakespeare’s brilliant reportage and novels. He turns out to be equally excellent as a biographer. Chatwin’s was a tragic and fascinating life. Coolly, sparely and never imposing himself (very rare in biographies), Shakespeare describes his subject’s character and adventure with such sympathy and drive that I feel compelled to return to Chatwin’s books’

  Angela Huth, Daily Mail

  ‘This is an authorised biography, but with none of the inhibition that an authorised biography usually entails. Nicholas Shakespeare has obviously done his research thoroughly – travelled in Chatwin’s footsteps, interviewed all his friends – and, although I am still not entirely convinced that Bruce Chatwin was the most fascinating man who ever lived, he proves quite fascinating enough to sustain these 550 pages’

  Lynn Barber, Daily Telegraph

  ‘A beautiful and completely absorbing book. I wish all biographies were this good and this well-written. I wish they moved so seamlessly from one person’s vigaette to another’s, as this one does . . . Boswell’s Life of Johnson and Shakespeare’s Bruce Chatwin are the two inspirational benchmarks for biography writing’

  Peter Oliva, The Vancouver Sun

  ‘One thing Bruce Chatwin could never do was tell the full unvarnished story of his life – his true and only masterpiece. That task has now been fulfilled by Nicholas Shakespeare in this remarkable biography – remarkable for its thoroughness, its insider’s crackle and its humane calm. This is a book blessed with perfect pitch . . . for Shakespeare, a novelist, has found in this story his own great subject’

  Nicholas Rothwell, The Weekend Australian

  ‘The long journey that encompassed Chatwin’s short life receives its first full exposition in this remarkable book. Not only has Shakespeare retraced the maze of Chatwin’s globetrotting, he has succeeded in producing a coherent portrait of a man whose history was only available through his own inventions and embellishments’

  Robert Whitehouse, The Richmond Book Review

  BOOKS OF THE YEAR

  ‘Nicholas Shakespeare’s Chatwin is the beautifully paced biography of a challenging subject: the chameleon traveller Bruce Chatwin, who wrote books in a genre of their own, and whose life was his own subtlest creation. From a maze of evidence, Shakespeare has emerged with the convincing portrait of a complex, flamboyantly gifted and rather tragic figure’

  Colin Thubron, Guardian

  ‘I hugely enjoyed Nicholas Shakespeare’s Chatwin’

  Max Hastings, Sunday Telegraph

  ‘A fascinating, highly coloured read’

  David Sexton, Evening Standard

  ‘A first rate biography’

  DJ Taylor, New Statesman

  ‘A monumental biography’

  Elizabeth Young, New Statesman

  ‘Shakespeare’s wonderful biography is timely, for Chatwin continues to cast a long shadow’

  Anthony Sattin, Sunday Times

  ‘Nicholas Shakespeare’s monumental biography of Bruce Chatwin is a very nicely balanced assessment of the writer’s incandescent literary career, immense charm and self-love, which he saw reflected in the eyes of countless lovers, male and female’

  Patrick Skene Catling, Spectator

  ‘I particularly enjoyed Nicholas Shakespeare’s Bruce Chatwin for its lack of piety and complete readability, a brilliant dissection of the difference between what happened in his life and what happened in his books’

  Ian Jack, Observer

  ‘An impressive detective work penetrating to the core of an elusive writer’

  Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times

  ‘When Nicholas Shakespeare’s Bruce Chatwin was publish
ed, its reviewers were largely drawn from those who had known him. I had never clapped eyes on the man so I was free to enjoy the biography unfurling like a rich nineteenth-century novel – dense with characters, events and the significance of Chatwin’s own writing’

  Joan Bakewell, New Statesman

  This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  Epub ISBN: 9781407074337

  Version 1.0

  www.randomhouse.co.uk

  Published by Vintage 2000

  6 8 10 9 7 5

  Copyright © Nicholas Shakespeare 1999

  The right of Nicholas Shakespeare to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

  First published in Great Britain by The Harvill Press in 1999 in association with Jonathan Cape

  Vintage

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  The Random House Group Limited Reg. No. 954009

  www.randomhouse.co.uk

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  ISBN 0099289970

  Papers used by Random House are natural, recyclable products made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin

  Printed and bound in Great Britain by

  Cox & Wyman Ltd, Reading, Berkshire

  for Gillian

  and to the memory of Tommy and

  Eduardo Davies of Gaiman

  Contents

  Acknowledgements

  I Fire

  II “Let’s Have a Child,” I Said

  III The Cabinet

  IV War Baby

  V From Brothel to Piggery

  VI I Know Where I’m Going

  VII The English Schoolboy

  VIII The Smootherboy

  IX The Imps

  X The Art Smuggler

  XI A goût de monstres

  XII Elizabeth

  XIII Afghanistan

  XIV The Chattys

  XV Out of His Depth

  XVI The Archaeologist

  XVII A Season in Hell

  XVIII That Wretched Book

  XIX Distractions

  XX Deliverance

  XXI The Journalist

  XXII “Gone to Patagonia”

  XXIII I Don’t Know What You’ll Make of It

  XXIV “Kicked by Amazon”

  XXV Brazil

  XXVI New York

  XXVII Oh, mais c’est du Flaubert!

  XXVIII Border Country

  XXIX A Judicial Separation

  XXX Australia

  XXXI The Bat Cave

  XXXII An Hour with Bruce Chatwin

  XXXIII A Sincere Fumbling

  XXXIV There is a God

  XXXV India

  XXXVI An A1 Medical Curiosity

  XXXVII The Harlequin

  XXXVIII A Cosmic Book

  XXXIX My Inexplicable Fever

  XL Fallen Angel

  XLI The Chatwin Effect

  Epilogues

  Notes

  Acknowledgements

  This biography could not have been written without the encouragement of Elizabeth Chatwin, who gave me unrestricted access to her family papers as well as to Bruce Chatwin’s notebooks, letters and medical records. It is impossible to acknowledge adequately her help. I am also indebted to Hugh Chatwin for sharing with me detailed memories of his family’s past and for his patience in correcting drafts of early chapters.

  Bruce Chatwin burned many of his papers in the summer of 1986 (“I turned arsonist and destroyed heaps of old notebooks, card indexes, correspondence”). What remains of his archive is deposited in the Modern Western Manuscripts room of the Bodleian Library. The 41 boxes are not to be opened to the public until 2010. Boxes 31 to 35 contain the 85 notebooks, dating from 1962 to 1988.

  For access to collections of Bruce Chatwin’s papers and related material, I would like to thank Colin Harris and Judith Priestman at the Bodleian; Mike Bott and the Jonathan Cape archive at Reading University; the Churchill Hospital in Oxford; the department of Archaeology at Edinburgh University; Marlborough College; Deborah Rogers Ltd; the Burns Library in Boston; and the Patagonian Institute in Punta Arenas.

  I would like to express my immense gratitude to the following for letters, diaries and unpublished manuscripts: Murray Bail, John Barnett, Sybille Bedford, Shirley Conran, Kate Foster, Ben Gannon, Shirley Hazzard, James Ivory, Judith Jesser, John Kasmin, Lala Leach, the late James Lees-Milne, Tom Maschler, Desmond Morris, David Nash, Keith Nicholson Price, David Plante, Jean Raspail, Kenneth Rose, Miranda Rothschild, Stewart Sanderson, George Steiner, Petronella Vaarzon-Morel, Gillian Walker, Cary Welch, and Francis Wyndham.

  For permission to use unedited tapes of their interviews, I would like to thank Colin Thubron, Suzanne Hayes of the Adelaide College of Technical and Further Education, Uki Goni of the Buenos Aires Herald and Robyn Ravlich of the ABC.

  I am also grateful to the following for their comments on work in progress: Peter Adam, Clare Alexander, Jan Dalley, Robert Erskine, Dan Franklin, John Hatt, Adam Low, Ted Lucie-Smith, Guy Norton, Ian Pindar, Peter Ryde, Peter Washington, Hermione Waterhouse, Paul Yule.

  In the writing of this book I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to a large number of people around the world who gave me their recollections. In Britain, I would like to thank the following for accounts of Chatwin’s early life: the late Charles and Margharita Chatwin, the late Anthony Chatwin, Barbara Chatwin, Bobbie Chatwin, John and Joyce Turnell, Gavin Anderson, Corbyn Barrow, John Crowder, Juliet Hubbard, John James, Susan Kinnersley, Patrick Lawrence, David Lea, and Irene Neal. Chatwin’s schooldays: Andrew Bache, Pat Barber, Michael Cannon, Michael Fea, Ivry Freyberg, Robin Garran, Trevor Gartside, Peter Hadfield, Tony Haines, Ewan Harper, John Hartland, Caroline Hayman, Philip Howard, Tim Jackson, Dick Longfield, Alan MacKichan, Christopher Massey, Tim O’Hanlon, David Parry, John Peregrine, Thomas Pye, Nigel Roberts, David Rogers, David Smith, Robert Smith, Nick Spicer, Richard Sturt, John Thorneycroft, Ronald Ward, and David West. Chatwin in London: Jane Abdy, Nigel Acheson, Peter Adler, Gloria Birkett, Ann Cadogan, Susannah Clapp, James Crathorne, Richard Day, Kenelm Digby-Jones, Adrian Eales, David Ellis-Jones, Peter Eyre, Richard Falkiner, Jocelyn Fielding, Magouche Fielding, Rowena Fielding, Sven Gahlin, the late Martha Gellhorn, Christopher Gibbs, Sue Goodhew, Janet Green, Nigel Greenwood, Carmen Gronau, Guy Hannon, David Heathcoat-Amory, Mary Henderson, Frank Herrmann, the late John Hewett, Derek Hill, Howard Hodgkin, Julia Hodgkin, Jonathan Hope, Rebecca Hossack, Sarah Hunt, Sara Inglis-Jones, John Kerr, Samira Kirollos, Marcus Linell, Dorothy Lygon, Katherine Maclean, John Mallet, Sandy Martin, Anne Miller, the late Teddy Millington-Drake, Felicity Nicholson, John Pawson, Anthony Pitt-Rivers, Julian Pitt-Rivers, Michae
l Pitt-Rivers, Peregrine Pollen, Howard Ricketts, Salman Rushdie, Simon Sainsbury, Brian Sewell, William Sieghart, Judith Small, Anthony Spink, John Stefanidis, Michel Strauss, Emma Tennant, James Thackera, Patrick Trevor-Roper, Guler Tunca, Tilo von Watzdorf, Michael Webb, Jason Wilson, and Patrick Woodcock. Chatwin in Edinburgh: Chris Houlder, Richard Langhorne, Fiona Marsden, Roger Mercer, the late Stuart Piggott, Marjorie Robertson, Rosanna Ross, Anthony Snodgrass, the late Tamara Talbot Rice, Charles Thomas, Ruth Tringham, Alex Tuckwell, Trevor Watkins, and Rowan Watson. The writing of The Nomadic Alternative: Gillon Aitken, Emma Bunker, the late Quentin Crewe, Bess Cuthbert, Ann Farkas, Oliver Hoare, Peter Levi, Harry Marshall, John Michell, John Nankivell, Bob Parsons, Deborah Rogers, Chris Rundle, Natasha Spender, the late Stephen Spender, Peter Straker, Jeremy Swift, Wilfred Thesiger, Charles and Brenda Tomlinson. Chatwin at the Sunday Times: Eve Arnold, Celestine Dars, Hunter Davies, James Fox, Colin Jones, David King, Roger Law, Magnus Linklater, Meriel McCooey, Philip Norman, Michael Rand, David Sylvester, Valerie Wade, and Barny Wan. Chatwin in Wales: the late Penelope Betjeman, Lucy Chenevix-Trench, George Clive, Mary Clive, Jasper Conran, Ali and John Cotterell, Michael Cottrill, Olive and Clive Greenway, Vivian and Jacqueline Howells, Jean the Barn, Paul Kasmin, Matthew and Sybella Kirkbride, Paul and Penny Levy, Diana and George Melly, Mary Morgan, Tom Oliver, Alan Silver, Martin Wilkinson, Stella Wilkinson. Chatwin’s illness: David Curtin, Michael Elmore-Meegan, Bent Juel-Jensen, Richard Staughton, Kevin Volans, Kallistos Ware, and David Warrell.

  I would like to thank the following for their time, and invariably their hospitality.

  Ireland: Alison and Brendan Rosse, and Desmond Fitz-Gerald. Stockholm: Peter, Lennart and Elsa Bratt. Paris: James Douglas, André le Fesvre, Jean-François Fogel, Loulou and Thadee Klossowski, James Lord, David Sulzberger, Ian Watson, and Edmund White. Geneva: George Ortiz. Germany: Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Niko Hansen, Werner Herzog, Michael Krüger, Michael Oppitz, and Manfred Pfister. Prague: Martin Hilsky, Clovis and Lizzie Meath-Baker, and Diana Phipps. Budapest: Rudi Fischer. Spain: Lynda Pranger. Italy: Roberto Calasso, John Fleming, Hugh Honour, Beatrice Monti, the late Gregor Rezzori, Matthew and Maro Spender, and Maurizio Tosi. Greece: Paddy and Joan Leigh Fermor, and Nikos Theanu. India: Sunil Sethi, and Paddy Singh. Nepal: Lisa and Tensing Choeygal. Tangier: Richard Timewell. Benin: Colin and Clothilde Barnes, Gilberto Gil, François Paraiso, Milton Monteiro Ribeiro, Henriette de Roux, Dana Rush, Karim da Silva, Martine da Silva, Doig Simmonds, Honoré Feliciano de Souza, Simone de Souza, and Norberto Prosper de Souza. South Africa: Bob Brain, Barbara and Jim Bailey, Sean and Fiona Baumann, Christine Hodges, Clive and Irene Menell. Argentina: Jesse Aldridge, Guillermo Alvarez, Robert Begg, Ignacio and Teresita Braun-Menendez, David and Ann Bridges, Jacqueline Caminos de la Carreras, Raul Cea, Tommy Davies, David and Peggy Fenton, Harold Fish, Ingebord Frazer, Paula Goldstein, Adrian and Stephanie Goodall, Jimmy Gough, Daphne Hobbs, Owen Ap Iwan, Yolanda Jamieson, Judith Jesser, Ruth Lamm, Kenneth and Diana Mcallum, Archie Norman, Rogelio Pfirter, Alma Arbusova de Riasniansky, Fabio Roberts de Gonzalez, Luned Roberts de Gonzalez, Tegai Roberts, Pascual Rosendo, Carlos Saenz, Alejandro Tirschini, Nicholas Tozer, Ofelia Veltri, Albina Zampini, and Jorge Torre Zavaleta. Chile: John Rees, John Barnett, Rose Eberhardt, and Mateo Martinic. Brazil: Noah Richler, Amanda Shakespeare, Rasbutta da Silva, and Pierre Verger. The United States: Bruce and Loretta Anawalt, Lynn Block, Clarence Brown, Nell Campbell, Carole Chanler, Gertrude Chanler, John and Sheila Chanler, Ollie Chanler, Freddy Eberstadt, Barbara Epstein, Grey Foy, Sarah Giles, Robert Hughes, Harmer Johnson, Bill Katz, Ward and Judith Landrigan, Michele Laporte, Lisa Lyon, Kynaston McShine, Gita Mehta, Keith Milow, Werner Muensterberger, John Richardson, John Russell, Helene Sieferheld, Elisabeth Sifton, Jim Silberman, Judith Small, Susan Sontag, Pattie Sullivan, Donna Tartt, Paul Walter, Cary and Edith Welch, Gillian Walker, and Jessie Wood. Toronto: Greg Gatenby. Australia: Carl Andrew, Geoff Bagshaw, Margaret Bail, the late Pam Bell, Richard Buckham, Paul Cox, Robyn Davison, Jenny Day, Nin Dutton, Ben Gannon, Jenny Green, Thomas Keneally, Dick Kimber, Lydia Livingstone, Les Murray, Anne-Marie Mykyta, Pam Nathan, Rob Novak, Christopher Pearson, Toly and Alexis Sawenko, Leo Schofield, Gary Stoll, Kath Strehlow, Phillip Toyne, Penelope Tree, Clinton Tweedie, Val Vallis, and Daphne Williams. New Zealand: Philippa Davies.