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Bruce Chatwin, the insatiable nomad

Audio 48:30

British writer Bruce Chatwin in Paris, May 16, 1984. © Getty Images/Ulf Andersen

By: Céline Develay Mazurelle Follow

1 min

In the pantheon of travel writers, the Briton Bruce Chatwin holds a resolutely special place.

Consecrated leader in the 80s of “travel writing”, he nevertheless refused this term which he considered insignificant.

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At the same time, the author of " 

 " or " 

 ", with his dandy airs, sent a pack of travelers, backpacks, on the tracks of Argentina or Australia.

Fascinated by the nomadic way of life, Bruce Chatwin was always on his way to or returning from somewhere.

Died in 1989 at the age of 48, he therefore made his short life a journey, a wandering, from Italy to Sudan, from Afghanistan to Benin, from Greece to Brazil.

In doing so, he never stopped writing and nourishing through movement, study and encounters, the material for his next stories, often stories of distant and fascinating lives.

More than 30 years after his death, follow us with Jennifer Lesieur, author of " 

 ", a very personal biography of the writer, in the footsteps of this equally impatient and erudite adventurous esthete, who had in horror the home and sedentary life.

This program is part of the 

collection , a series of radio portraits of travel writers.

It originally aired in September 2019. 

→ To read:

- “ 

 ”, by Jennifer Lesieur.

Stock Editions

- " 

 ", by Bruce Chatwin.

Grasset Editions

- “ 

 ”.

Gay’Wu group of women.

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