Bruce Chatwin

Bruce Chatwin
Charles Bruce Chatwin FRSL (13 May

1940 – 18 January 1989) was an English Bruce Chatwin
travel writer, novelist and journalist. His FRSL
first book, In Patagonia (1977), established
Chatwin as a travel writer, although he
considered himself instead a storyteller,
interested in bringing to light unusual tales.
He won the James Tait Black Memorial
Prize for his novel On the Black Hill (1982),
while his novel Utz (1988) was shortlisted
for the Man Booker Prize. In 2008 The
Times ranked Chatwin as number 46 on
their list of "50 Greatest British Writers
Since 1945."
Chatwin was born in Sheffield. After Bruce Chatwin, photographed by

completing his secondary education at Lord Snowdon, 28 July 1982
Marlborough College,[2] he went to work at Born Charles Bruce
the age of 18 at Sotheby's in London, where Chatwin
he gained an extensive knowledge of art and 13 May 1940
eventually ran the auction house's Sheffield, West
Antiquities and Impressionist Art Riding of Yorkshire,
departments. In 1966 he left Sotheby's to England
read archaeology at the University of
Died 18 January 1989
Edinburgh, but he abandoned his studies
(aged 48)
after two years to pursue a career as a
Nice, Alpes-
writer.
Maritimes, France
The Sunday Times Magazine hired Chatwin Resting Agios Nikolaos,
in 1972. He travelled the world for work and place Messenia, Greece[1]
interviewed figures such as the politicians Occupation Novelist, travel writer,
Indira Gandhi and André Malraux. He left art and antiquities
the magazine in 1974 to visit Patagonia, advisor
Argentina; a trip that inspired his first book.
Education Marlborough College
He wrote five other books, including The
Songlines (1987), about Australia, which Alma mater University of
was a bestseller. His work is credited with Edinburgh
reviving the genre of travel writing, and his Period 1977–1989
works influenced other writers such as Genre Travel writing, fiction
William Dalrymple, Claudio Magris, Philip
Subject Nomadism, slave
Marsden, Luis Sepúlveda, and Rory Stewart.
trade
Spouse Elizabeth Chanler
(m. 1965)
Life
Early years
Chatwin was born on 13 May 1940 at the Shearwood Road Nursing Home in
Sheffield, England, to Margharita (née Turnell) and Charles Chatwin.[3] His
mother had grown up in Sheffield and worked for the local Conservative party
prior to her marriage.[4] His father was a lawyer from Birmingham who joined
the Royal Naval Reserve following the outbreak of World War II.[3][5]
Chatwin's early years were spent moving regularly with his mother while his
father was at sea.[6] Prior to his birth, Chatwin's parents had lived at Barnt
Green, Worcestershire, but Margharita moved to her parents' house in
Dronfield, near Sheffield, shortly before giving birth.[7] Mother and son
remained there for a few weeks.[8] Worried about Nazi bombs, Margharita
sought a safer place to stay.[9] She took her son with her as they travelled to stay
with various relatives during the war. They would remain in one place until
Margharita decided to move, either because of concern for their safety, or
because of friction among family members.[10] Later in life Chatwin recalled of
the war, "Home, if we had one, was a solid black suitcase called the Rev-Robe, in
which there was a corner for my clothes and my Mickey Mouse gas mask."[11]
During the war Chatwin and his mother stayed at the home of his paternal
grandparents, who had a curiosity cabinet that fascinated him. Among the items
it contained was a "piece of brontosaurus" (actually a mylodon, a giant sloth),
which had been sent to Chatwin's grandmother by her cousin Charles Milward.
Travelling in Patagonia, Milward had discovered the remains of a giant sloth,
which he later sold to the British Museum. He sent his cousin a piece of the
animal's skin, and members of the family mistakenly referred to it as a "piece of
brontosaurus". The skin was later lost, but it inspired Chatwin decades later to
visit and write about Patagonia.[12]
After the war, Chatwin lived with his parents and younger brother Hugh (1944 –
2012)[13][14][15] in West Heath in Birmingham, where his father had a law
practice.[16] At the age of seven he was sent to boarding school at Old Hall
School in Shropshire, and then Marlborough College, in Wiltshire.[17] An
unexceptional student, Chatwin garnered attention from his performances in
school plays.[18] While at Marlborough, Chatwin attained A-levels in Latin,
Greek, and Ancient History.[19]
Chatwin had hoped to read Classics at Merton College, Oxford, but the end of
National Service in the United Kingdom meant there was more competition for
university places. He was forced to consider other options. His parents
discouraged the ideas he offered — an acting career or work in the Colonial
Service in Kenya. Instead, Chatwin's father asked one of his clients for a letter of
introduction to the auction house Sotheby's. An interview was arranged, and
Chatwin secured a job there.[20]
Art and archaeology
In 1958, Chatwin moved to London to begin work as a porter in the Works of Art
department at Sotheby's.[21] Chatwin was ill-suited for this job, which included
dusting objects that had been kept in storage.[22] Sotheby's moved him to a
junior cataloguer position, working in both the Antiquities and Impressionist Art
departments.[23] This position enabled him to develop his eye for art, and he
quickly became known for his ability to discern forgeries.[24][25] His work as a
cataloguer also taught him to describe objects in a concise manner and required
him to research these objects.[26] Chatwin advanced to become Sotheby's expert
on Antiquities and Impressionist art and would later run both departments.[27]
Many of Chatwin's colleagues thought he would eventually become chairman of
the auction house.[28]
During this period Chatwin travelled extensively for his job and also for
adventure.[29] Travel offered him a relief from the British class system, which he
found stifling.[30] An admirer of Robert Byron and his book, The Road to
Oxiana, he travelled twice to Afghanistan.[31] He also used these trips to visit
markets and shops, where he would buy antiques that he would resell at a profit
in order to supplement his income from Sotheby's.[32] He became friends with
artists, art collectors and dealers.[33][34] One friend, Howard Hodgkin, painted
Chatwin in The Japanese Screen (1962). Chatwin said he was the "acid green
smear on the left."[35]
Chatwin was ambivalent about his sexual orientation and had affairs with both
men and women during this period of his life.[36] One of his girlfriends,
Elizabeth Chanler, an American and a descendant of John Jacob Astor, was a
secretary at Sotheby's.[37] Chanler had earned a degree in history from Radcliffe
College and worked at Sotheby's New York offices for two years before
transferring to their London office in 1961.[38] Her love of travel and
independent nature appealed to Chatwin.[39]
In the mid-1960s Chatwin grew unhappy at Sotheby's. There were various

reasons for his disenchantment. Both women and men found Chatwin attractive,
and Peter Wilson, then chairman of Sotheby's, used this appeal to the auction
house's advantage when using Chatwin to try to persuade wealthy individuals to
sell their art collections. Chatwin became increasingly uncomfortable with the
situation.[40] Later in life Chatwin also spoke of having become "burnt out" and
said, "In the end I felt I might just as well be working for a rather superior
funeral parlour. One's whole life seemed to be spent valuing for probate the
apartment of somebody recently dead."[41]
In late 1964 he began to suffer from problems with his sight, which he attributed
to the close analysis of art work entailed by his job. He consulted eye specialist
Patrick Trevor-Roper, who diagnosed a latent squint and recommended that
Chatwin take a six-month break from his work at Sotheby's. Trevor-Roper had
been involved in the design of an eye hospital in Addis Ababa, and suggested
Chatwin visit East Africa. In February 1965, Chatwin left for Sudan.[42] It was on
this trip that Chatwin first encountered a nomadic tribe; their way of life
intrigued him. "My nomadic guide," he wrote, "carried a sword, a purse and a
pot of scented goat's grease for anointing his hair. He made me feel
overburdened and inadequate...."[43] Chatwin would remain fascinated by
nomads for the rest of his life.[44]
Chatwin returned to Sotheby's, and to the surprise of his friends, proposed

marriage to Elizabeth Chanler.[45] They married on 21 August 1965.[46] Chatwin
was bisexual throughout their married life, a circumstance Elizabeth knew and
accepted.[39] Chatwin had hoped he would "grow out of" his homosexual
behaviour and have a successful marriage like his parents.[47] During their
marriage, Chatwin had many affairs, mostly with men. Some who were aware of
Chatwin's affairs with men assumed the Chatwins had a chaste marriage, but
according to Nicholas Shakespeare, the author's biographer, this was not
true.[48] Both Chatwin and his wife had hoped to have children, but they
remained childless.[49]
In April 1966, at the age of 26, Chatwin was promoted to a director of Sotheby's,
a position to which he had aspired.[50] To his disappointment, he was made a
junior director and lacked voting rights on the board.[51] This disappointment,
along with boredom and increasing discomfort over potentially illegal side deals
taking place at Sotheby's, including the sale of objects from the Pitt-Rivers
museum collection, led Chatwin to resign from his Sotheby's post in June
1966.[52]
Chatwin enrolled in October 1966 at the University of Edinburgh to study

Archaeology.[53] He had regretted not attending Oxford and had been
contemplating going to university for a few years. A visit in December 1965 to
the Hermitage in Leningrad sparked his interest in the field of archaeology.[54]
Despite winning the Wardrop Prize for the best first year's work,[55] he found the
rigour of academic archaeology tiresome, and he left after two years without
taking a degree.[56]
The Nomadic Alternative
Following his departure from Edinburgh, Chatwin decided to pursue a career as

a writer, successfully pitching a book proposal on nomads to Tom Maschler,
publisher at Jonathan Cape. Chatwin tentatively titled the book The Nomadic
Alternative and sought to answer the question "Why do men wander rather than
stand still?"[57] Chatwin delivered the manuscript in 1972, and Maschler
declined to publish it, calling it a "chore to read".[58][59]
Between 1969 and 1972, as he was working on The Nomadic Alternative,

Chatwin travelled extensively and pursued other endeavours in an attempt to
establish a creative career. He co-curated an exhibit on Nomadic Art of the
Asian Steppes, which opened at Asia House Gallery in New York City in
1970.[60] He considered publishing an account of his 1969 trip to Afghanistan
with Peter Levi.[61] Levi published his own book about it, The Light Garden of
the Angel King: Journeys in Afghanistan (1972).[62] Chatwin contributed two
articles on nomads to Vogue and another article to History Today.[63]
In the early 1970s Chatwin had an affair with James Ivory, a film director. He
pitched stories to him for possible films, which Ivory did not take seriously.[64]
In 1972 Chatwin tried his hand at film-making and travelled to Niger to make a
documentary about nomads.[65] The film was lost while Chatwin was trying to
sell it to European television companies.[66]
Chatwin also took photographs of his journeys and attempted to sell

photographs from a trip to Mauritania to The Sunday Times Magazine.[67]
While The Times did not accept those photographs for publication, it did offer
Chatwin a job.[63]
The Sunday Times Magazine and In Patagonia
In 1972, The Sunday Times Magazine hired Chatwin as an adviser on art and
architecture.[68] Initially his role was to suggest story ideas and put together
features such as "One Million Years of Art," which ran in several issues during
the summer of 1973.[69] His editor, Francis Wyndham, encouraged him to write,
which allowed him to develop his narrative skills.[70] Chatwin travelled on many
international assignments, writing on such subjects as Algerian migrant workers
and the Great Wall of China, and interviewing such diverse people as André
Malraux, Maria Reiche, and Madeleine Vionnet.[71][72]
In 1972, Chatwin interviewed the 93-year-old architect and designer Eileen Gray
in her Paris salon, where he noticed a map she had painted of the area of South
America called Patagonia.[73] "I've always wanted to go there," Chatwin told her.
"So have I," she replied, "Go there for me."[74]
Two years later, in November 1974, Chatwin flew out to Lima in Peru, and
reached Patagonia, Argentina; a month later.[75] He would later claim that he
sent a telegram to Wyndham merely stating: "Have gone to Patagonia." Actually
he sent a letter: "I am doing a story there for myself, something I have always
wanted to write up."[76] This marked the end of Chatwin's role as a regular
writer for The Sunday Times Magazine, although in subsequent years he
contributed occasional pieces, including a profile of Indira Gandhi.[77]
Chatwin spent six months in Patagonia, travelling around gathering stories of

people who came from elsewhere and settled there. This trip resulted in the
book, In Patagonia (1977). He used his quest for his own "piece of
brontosaurus" (the one from his grandparents' cabinet had been thrown away
years earlier) to frame the story of his trip. Chatwin described In Patagonia as
"the narrative of an actual journey and a symbolic one.... It is supposed to fall
into the category or be a spoof of Wonder Voyage: the narrator goes to a far
country in search of a strange animal: on his way he lands in strange situations,
people or other books tell him strange stories which add up to form a
message."[78]
In Patagonia contains fifteen black and white photographs by Chatwin.

According to Susannah Clapp, who edited the book, "Rebecca West amused
Chatwin by telling him that these were so good they rendered superfluous the
entire text of the book."[79]
This work established Chatwin's reputation as a travel writer. One of his

biographers, Nicholas Murray, called In Patagonia "one of the most strikingly
original post-war English travel books"[80] and said that it revitalised the genre
of travel writing.[81] However, residents in the region contradicted the account of
events depicted in Chatwin's book. It was the first time in his career, but not the
last, that conversations and characters which Chatwin presented as fact were
later alleged to be fiction.[82]
For In Patagonia Chatwin received the Hawthornden Prize and the E. M.

Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.[83] Graham
Greene, Patrick Leigh Fermor, and Paul Theroux praised the book.[84] As a
result of the success of In Patagonia, Chatwin's circle of friends expanded to
include people like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Susan Sontag, and Jasper
Johns.[85]
Ouidah and the Black Hills
Upon his return from Patagonia, Chatwin discovered a change in leadership at

The Sunday Times Magazine and his retainer was discontinued.[86] Chatwin
intended his next project to be a biography of Francisco Félix de Sousa, a 19th-
century slave trader born in Brazil, who became the Viceroy of Ouidah in
Dahomey. Chatwin had first heard of De Sousa during a visit to Dahomey in
1972.[87] He returned to the country, by then renamed the People's Republic of
Benin, in December 1976 to conduct research.[88] In January 1977, during the
1977 Benin coup d'état attempt, Chatwin was accused of being a mercenary and
detained for three days.[89] Chatwin later wrote about this experience in "A Coup
— A Story," which was published in Granta and included in What Am I Doing
Here? (1989).[90]
Following his arrest and release, Chatwin left Benin and went to Brazil to
continue his research on de Sousa.[91] Frustrated by the lack of documented
information on de Sousa, Chatwin chose instead to write a fictionalised
biography of him, The Viceroy of Ouidah.[92] This book was published in 1980,
and Werner Herzog's film, Cobra Verde (1987), is based on it.[93][94]
Although The Viceroy of Ouidah received good reviews, it did not sell well.
Nicholas Shakespeare said that the dismal sales caused Chatwin to pursue a
completely different subject for his next book.[95] In response to his growing
reputation as a travel writer, Chatwin said he "decided to write something about
people who never went out."[96] His next book, On the Black Hill (1982), is a
novel of twin brothers who live all of their lives in a farmhouse on the Welsh
borders.[97] For this book Chatwin won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and
the Whitbread Prize for Best First Novel, even though he considered his previous
book, The Viceroy of Ouidah, a novel.[98] It was made into a film in 1987.[94]
In the late 1970s Chatwin spent
an increasing amount of time in
New York City. He continued to
have affairs with men, but most
of these affairs were short-lived.
In 1977 he began his first serious
affair with Donald Richards, an
Australian stockbroker.[99]
Richards introduced him to the
gay nightclub scene in New
York.[100] During this period
Chatwin became acquainted with
Robert Mapplethorpe, who
The southern part of the Grwyne Fechan valley in
photographed him. Chatwin is
the Black Mountains, Welsh Borders
one of the few men
Mapplethorpe photographed
fully clothed.[101] Chatwin later contributed the introduction to a book of
Mapplethorpe's photographs, Lady, Lisa Lyon (1983).[102]
Although Elizabeth Chatwin had accepted her husband's affairs, their

relationship deteriorated in the late 1970s, and in 1980 she asked for a
separation.[103] By 1982 Chatwin's affair with Richards had ended and he began
another serious affair with Jasper Conran.[104]
The Songlines
In 1983 Chatwin returned to the topic of nomads and decided to focus on

Aboriginal Australians.[105] He was influenced by the work of Ted Strehlow, a
controversial figure who was the author of Songs of Central Australia.[106]
Strehlow had collected and recorded Aboriginal songs, and shortly before his
death in 1978, he sold photographs of secret Aboriginal initiation ceremonies to
a magazine.[107]
Chatwin went to Australia to learn more about Aboriginal culture, specifically

the songlines or dreaming tracks.[108] Each songline is a personal story and
functions as a creation tale and a map, and each Aboriginal Australian has their
own songline.[109] Chatwin thought the songlines could be used as a metaphor to
support his ideas about humans' need to wander, which he believed was genetic.
However, he struggled fully to understand and describe the songlines and their
place in Aboriginal culture.[110] This was due to Chatwin's approach to learning
about the songlines. He spent several weeks in 1983 and 1984 in Australia,
during which he primarily relied on non-Aboriginal people for information, as
he was limited by his inability to speak the Aboriginal languages. He interviewed
people involved in the Land Rights movement, and he alienated many of them
because he was oblivious to the politics and also because he was an admirer of
Strehlow's work.[111]
While in Australia, Chatwin, who had been experiencing some health problems,
first read about AIDS, then known as the gay plague. It frightened him and
compelled him to reconcile with his wife.[112] The fear of AIDS also drove him to
finish the book that became The Songlines (1987). His friend the novelist
Salman Rushdie said, "That book was an obsession too great for him.... His
illness did him a favour, got him free of it. Otherwise, he would have gone on
writing it for ten years."[113]
The Songlines features a narrator named Bruce whose biography is almost

identical to Chatwin's.[114] The narrator spends time in Australia trying to learn
about Aboriginal culture, specifically the songlines. As the book goes on, it
becomes a reflection on what Chatwin stated was "for me, the question of
questions: the nature of human restlessness."[115] Chatwin also hinted at his
preoccupation over his own mortality in the text: "I had a presentiment that the
'travelling' phase of my life might be passing.... I should set down on paper a
resume of the ideas, quotations, and encounters that amused me and obsessed
me."[115] Following this statement in The Songlines Chatwin included extensive
excerpts from his moleskine notebooks.[116]
Chatwin published The Songlines in 1987, and it became a bestseller in the

United Kingdom and in the United States.[117] The book was nominated for the
Thomas Cook Travel Award, but Chatwin requested that it be withdrawn from
consideration, saying the work was fictional.[117] After its publication, Chatwin
became friends with the composer Kevin Volans, who was inspired to base a
theatre score on the book. The project evolved into an opera, The Man with
Footsoles of Wind (1993).[118]
Illness and final works
While at work on The Songlines between 1983 and 1986,[119] Chatwin frequently
came down with colds.[120] He also developed skin lesions that may have been
symptoms of Kaposi's sarcoma.[121] After finishing The Songlines in August
1986, Chatwin went to Switzerland, where he collapsed in the street.[122] At a
clinic there, he was diagnosed as HIV-positive.[123] Chatwin provided different
reasons to his doctors as to how he might have contracted HIV, including from a
gang rape in Dahomey or possibly from Sam Wagstaff, the patron and lover of
Robert Mapplethorpe.[124]
Chatwin's case was unusual as he had a fungal infection, Talaromyces
marneffei, which at the time had rarely been seen and only in South Asia. It is
now known as an AIDS-defining illness, but in 1986 little was known about HIV
and AIDS. Doctors were not certain if all cases of HIV developed into AIDS. The
rare fungus gave Chatwin hope that he might be different and served as the basis
of what he told most people about his illness. He gave various reasons for how he
became infected with the fungus — ranging from eating a thousand-year-old egg
to exploring a bat cave in Indonesia.[125] He never publicly disclosed that he was
HIV-positive because of the stigma at the time. He wanted to protect his parents,
who were unaware of his homosexual affairs.[126]
Although Chatwin never spoke or wrote publicly about his disease, in one
instance he did write about the AIDS epidemic in 1988 in a letter to the editor of
the London Review of Books:
"The word 'Aids' is one of the cruellest and silliest neologisms of our
time. 'Aid' means help, succour, comfort—yet with a hissing sibilant
tacked onto the end it becomes a nightmare.... HIV (Human
Immuno-Deficiency Virus) is a perfectly easy name to live with.
'Aids' causes panic and despair and has probably done something to
facilitate the spread of the disease."[127]
During his illness, Chatwin continued to write. Elizabeth encouraged him to use
a letter he had written to her from Prague in 1967 as an inspiration for a new
story.[128] During this trip, he had met Konrad Just, an art collector.[129] This
meeting and the letter to Elizabeth served as the basis for Chatwin's next work.
Utz (1988) was a novel about the obsession that leads people to collect.[130] Set
in Prague, the novel details the life and death of Kaspar Utz, a man obsessed
with his collection of Meissen porcelain.[131] Utz was well-received and was
shortlisted for the Booker Prize.[132]
Chatwin also edited a collection of his journalism, which was published as What
Am I Doing Here (1989).[133] At the time of his death in 1989, he was working
on a number of new ideas for future novels, including a transcontinental epic
provisionally titled Lydia Livingstone.[134]
Chatwin died at a hospital in Nice on 18 January 1989.[135] A memorial service

was held at the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Sophia in West London on 14
February 1989, Salman Rushdie, a close friend of Chatwin's, attended the
service.[136] Paul Theroux, who also attended the service, later commented on it
and Chatwin in a piece for Granta.[137] The novelist Martin Amis described the
memorial service in the essay "Salman Rushdie", included in his anthology
Visiting Mrs Nabokov.[138]
Chatwin's ashes were scattered near a Byzantine chapel above Kardamyli in the
Peloponnese. This was close to the home of one of his mentors, the writer
Patrick Leigh Fermor.[139] Chatwin had spent several months in 1985 near there,
working on The Songlines.[140]
Chatwin's papers, including 85 moleskine notebooks, were given to the Bodleian

Library, Oxford.[141] Two collections of his photographs and excerpts from the
moleskine notebooks were published as Photographs and Notebooks (US title:
Far Journeys) in 1993 and Winding Paths in 1999.[142][143]
News of Chatwin's AIDS diagnosis first surfaced in September 1988, although

the obituaries at the time of his death had referred to Chatwin's statements
about a rare fungal infection. After his death, some members of the gay
community criticised Chatwin for lack of courage to reveal the true nature of his
illness, thinking he would have raised public awareness of AIDS, as he was one
of the first high-profile individuals in Britain known to have contracted
HIV.[144][145]
Writing style
John Updike described Chatwin's writing as "a clipped, lapidary prose that
compresses worlds into pages",[146] while one of Chatwin's editors, Susannah
Clapp, wrote, "Although his syntax was pared down, his words were not — or at
least not only — plain.... His prose is both spare and flamboyant."[147] Chatwin's
writing was shaped by his work as a cataloguer at Sotheby's, which provided him
with years of practice in writing concise, yet vivid descriptions of objects with the
intention of enticing buyers.[26] In addition, his writing was influenced by his
interest in nomads. One aspect that interested him was the few possessions they
had. Their Spartan way of life appealed to his aesthetic sense, and he sought to
emulate it in his life and his writing, striving to strip needless objects from his
life and needless words from his prose.[148]
Chatwin experimented with format in his writing. With In Patagonia, Clapp said
Chatwin described the book's structure of 97 vignettes as "Cubist." "[I]n other
words," she said, "lots of small pictures tilting away and toward each other to
create this strange original portrait of Patagonia."[149] The Songlines was
another attempt by Chatwin to experiment with format.[150] It begins as a novel
narrated by a man named Bruce, but about two-thirds of the way through it
becomes a commonplace book filled with quotations, anecdotes, and summaries
of others' research, in an attempt to explore restlessness.[151] Some of Chatwin's
critics did not think he succeeded in The Songlines with this approach, but
others applauded his effort at an unconventional structure.[152]
Several 19th and 20th-century writers influenced Chatwin's work. He admitted

to imitating the work of Robert Byron when he first began making notes of his
travels.[153] While in Patagonia he read In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway,
whom he admired for his spare prose.[154] While writing In Patagonia, Chatwin
strove to approach his writing as a "literary Cartier-Bresson."[155] Chatwin's
biographer described the resulting prose as "quick snapshots of ordinary
people".[156] Along with Hemingway and Cartier-Bresson, Osip Mandelstam's
work strongly influenced Chatwin during the writing of In Patagonia. An
admirer of Noël Coward, Chatwin found the breakfast scene in Private Lives
helpful in learning to write dialogue.[157] Once Chatwin began work on The
Viceroy of Ouidah, he began studying the work of 19th-century French authors
such as Honoré de Balzac and Gustave Flaubert, who would continue to
influence him for the rest of his life.[158]
Themes
Chatwin explored several different themes in his work: human restlessness and
wandering; borders and exile; and art and objects.[115][159][160] He considered
human restlessness to be the focus of his writing. He ultimately aspired to
explore the subject in order to answer what he saw as a fundamental question of
human existence.[161][115] He thought humans were meant to be a migratory
species, and once they settled in one place, their natural urges "found outlets in
violence, greed, status-seeking or a mania for the new."[162] In his first attempt
at writing a book, The Nomadic Alternative, Chatwin had tried to compose an
academic exposition on nomadic culture, which he believed was unexamined
and unappreciated.[162][161] With this, Chatwin had hoped to discover: "Why do
men wander rather than sit still?"[163] In his book proposal he admitted that the
interest in the subject was personal: "Why do I become restless after a month in
a single place, unbearable after two?"[163]
Although Chatwin did not succeed with The Nomadic Alternative, he returned
to the topic of restlessness and wandering in subsequent books. Writer Jonathan
Chatwin (no relation) stated that Chatwin's works can be grouped into two
categories: "restlessness defined" and "restlessness explained." Most of his work
focuses on describing restlessness, such as in the case of one twin in On the
Black Hill who longs to leave home.[164] Another example is the protagonist of
Utz, who feels restless to escape to Vichy each year, but always returns to
Prague.[165] Chatwin attempted to explain restlessness in The Songlines, which
focused on the Aboriginal Australians' walkabout. For this, he returned to his
research from The Nomadic Alternative.[166][167]
Borders are another Chatwin theme. According to Elizabeth Chatwin, he "was

interested in borders, where things were always changing, not one thing or
another."[168] Patagonia, the subject of his first published book, is an area that is
in both Argentina and Chile.[169] The Viceroy of Ouidah is a Brazilian who trades
slaves in Dahomey.[170] On the Black Hills takes place on the borders of Wales
and England.[98] In The Songlines the characters the protagonist mostly
interacts with are people who provide a bridge between the Aboriginal and white
Australian worlds.[171] The main character in Utz travels back and forth across
the Iron Curtain.[165]
"The theme of exile, of people living at the margins.... is treated in a literal and
metaphorical sense throughout Chatwin's work," stated Nicholas Murray. He
identified several examples. There were people who were actual exiles, like some
of those profiled in In Patagonia, and the Viceroy of Ouidah, unable to return to
Brazil. Murray also cited the main characters in On the Black Hill: "Although not
strictly exiles.... [they] were exiles from the major events of their time and its
dominant values." Similarly, Murray wrote, Utz is "trapped in a society whose
values are not his own but which he cannot bring himself to leave."[159]
Chatwin returned to the subject of art and objects during his career. In his early
writing for the Sunday Times Magazine, he wrote about art and artists, and
many of these articles were included in What Am I Doing Here.[172] The main
focus of Utz is on the impact the possession of art (in this case porcelain figures)
has on a collector.[173] Utz's unwillingness to give up his porcelain collection
kept him in Czechoslovakia even though he had the opportunity to live in the
West.[130] Chatwin constantly struggled with the conflicting desires to own
beautiful items and to live in a space free of unnecessary objects.[174] His distaste
for the art world resulted from his days at Sotheby's; some of his final writing
focused on this.[175] The topic appears in the final section of What Am I Doing
Here, "Tales from the Art World," which consists of four short stories. At the end
of What Am I Doing Here, Chatwin shares an anecdote of advice he received
from Noël Coward: "Never let anything artistic stand in your way." Chatwin
stated, "I've always acted on that advice."[176]
Influence
With the publication of In Patagonia, Chatwin invigorated the genre of travel
writing; according to his biographer, Nicholas Murray, he "showed that an
inventive writer could breathe new life into an old genre."[177] The combination
of his clear, yet vivid prose and an international perspective at a time when
many English writers were more focused on home instead of abroad helped to
set him apart.[178][179] Aside from his writing, Chatwin was also good looking,
and his image as a dashing traveller added to his appeal and helped make him a
celebrity.[180] In the eyes of younger writers such as Rory Stewart, Chatwin
"made [travel writing] cool."[181] In The New York Times, Andrew Harvey wrote,
"Nearly every writer of my generation in England has wanted, at

some point, to be Bruce Chatwin; wanted, like him, to talk of Fez and
Firdausi, Nigeria and Nuristan, with equal authority; wanted to be
talked about, as he is, with raucous envy; wanted above all to have
written his books."[182]
Chatwin's books also inspired some readers to visit Patagonia and Australia.[183]
As a result, Patagonia experienced an increase in tourism,[184] and it became a
common sight for tourists to appear in the region, carrying a copy of In
Patagonia.[185] The Songlines also inspired readers to travel to Australia and
seek out the people on whom Chatwin had based his characters, much to their
consternation, as he had failed to disclose such intentions to them.[186]
Beyond travel, Chatwin influenced other writers, such as Claudio Magris, Luis
Sepúlveda, Philip Marsden, and William Dalrymple.[187] Nicholas Shakespeare
stated that some of Chatwin's impact came from the difficulty of categorising his
work, which helped to "set free other writers...[from] conventional
boundaries."[188] Although he was often called a travel writer, he did not identify
himself as one, or as a novelist. ("I don't quite know the meaning of the word
novel," he said).[189] He preferred to call his writing stories or searches.[189][190]
He was interested in asking big questions about human existence, sharing
unusual tales, and making connections between ideas from various sources. His
friend and fellow writer Robyn Davidson said, "He posed questions we all want
answered and perhaps gave the illusion they were answerable."[187]
Posthumous influence
According to his biographer Nicholas Shakespeare, Chatwin's work developed a

dedicated following in the years immediately after his death.[191] By 1998 a
million copies of his books had been sold.[192] However, his reputation
diminished following revelations about his personal life and questions about the
accuracy of his work.
The accuracy problem had arisen before his death, and Chatwin had admitted to
"counting up the lies" in In Patagonia, though he stated there were not
many.[193] While researching Chatwin's life, Nicholas Shakespeare stated he
found "few cases of mere invention" in In Patagonia.[194] Mostly, these tended
to be instances of embellishment, such as when Chatwin wrote of a nurse who
loved the work of Osip Mandelstam – one of his favorite authors – when in fact
she was a fan of Agatha Christie.[194] When Michael Ignatieff asked Chatwin his
opinion of what divided fact from fiction, he replied, "I don't think there is [a
division]."[195]
Some individuals profiled in In Patagonia were unhappy with Chatwin's

portrayals of them. They included a man whom Chatwin insinuated was
homosexual and a woman who thought her father was unjustly accused of killing
Indians.[196] However, Chatwin's biographer found one farmer who was featured
in the book who thought Chatwin's depictions of himself and other members of
his community were truthful. He stated, "No one likes looking at their own
passport photograph, but I found it accurate. It's not flattering, but it's the
truth."[156]
Chatwin's bestseller, The Songlines, has been the focus of much criticism. Some
describe his viewpoint as "colonialist", citing his lack of interviews with
Aboriginals and reliance instead on white Australians for information about
Aboriginal culture.[197] Other criticism comes from anthropologists and other
researchers who spent years studying Aboriginal culture and dismiss Chatwin's
work because he visited Australia briefly.[171] Yet others, such as writer Thomas
Keneally, believe The Songlines should be widely read in Australia, where many
people had not previously heard of the songlines.[198]
The questions about the veracity of Chatwin's writing are compounded by the
revelation of his sexual orientation and the true cause of his death.[199] Once it
became known that Chatwin had been bisexual and had died of an AIDS-related
illness, some critics viewed him as a liar and dismissed his work.[200] Nicholas
Shakespeare said, "His denial [of his AIDS diagnosis] bred a sense that if he lied
about his life, he must have lied about his work. Some readers have taken this as
a cue to pass judgement on his books – or else not to bother with them."[201] In
2010 The Guardian's review of Under the Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin
opened with the question, "Does anyone read Bruce Chatwin these days?"[202]
However, Rory Stewart has stated, "His personality, his learning, his myths, and
even his prose are less hypnotizing [than they once were]. And yet he remains a
great writer, of deep and enduring importance.”[181] In 2008 The Times rated
Chatwin No. 46 on their list of "50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945".[203]
Legacy
Chatwin's name is used to sell Moleskine notebooks.[204] Chatwin wrote in The

Songlines of little black oilskin-covered notebooks that he bought in Paris and
called "moleskines".[205] The quotes and anecdotes he had compiled in them
serve as a major section of The Songlines, where Chatwin mourned the closure
of the last producer of such books.[205] In 1995, Marta Sebregondi read The
Songlines and proposed to her employer, the Italian design and publishing firm
Modo & Modo, that they produce moleskine notebooks.[206] In 1997, the
company began to sell them and use Chatwin's name to promote them.[207]
Modo & Modo was sold in 2006, and the company became known as Moleskine
SpA.[206]
In 2014 the clothing label Burberry produced a collection inspired by Chatwin's

books.[208] The following year Burberry released a limited edition of Chatwin's
books with specially designed covers.[209]
In September 2019 the documentary film Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce

Chatwin, by Werner Herzog, was broadcast by the BBC.[210]
Works
In Patagonia (1977)
The Viceroy of Ouidah (1980)
On the Black Hill (1982)
The Songlines (1987)
Utz (1988)
What Am I Doing Here (1989)
Posthumously published
Photographs and Notebooks (1993)
Anatomy of Restlessness (1997)
Winding Paths (1998)
See also
Teddy Millington-Drake
References
Citations
1. Shakespeare (1999). Bruce Chatwin. p. 573.
2. The Chatwin Colloquium Retrieved 9 February 2018. (http://www.marlboroug
hcollege.org/news/speakers/article/date/2014/02/the-chatwin-colloquium/)
4. Shakespeare (1999). Bruce Chatwin. pp. 21–22.
6. Chatwin, Elizabeth (2010). Under the Sun. London: Jonathan Cape. p. 21.
9. Chatwin, Elizabeth (2010). Under the Sun. p. 21.
10. Shakespeare 1999, p. 22.
11. Chatwin, Bruce (1987). The Songlines. London: Jonathan Cape. p. 6.
12. Chatwin, Bruce (1977). In Patagonia. London: Jonathan Cape. pp. 1–3.
14. http://rangefree.blogspot.com/2012/07/hugh-chatwin-rip.html
15. https://funeral-notices.co.uk/West+Midlands-West+Midlands-
Birmingham/death-notices/notice/chatwin/268452
19. Shakespeare, Nicholas (1999). Bruce Chatwin. p. 88.
20. Shakespeare, Nicholas (1999). Bruce Chatwin. New York: Viking. pp. 87–88.
ISBN 0-385-49829-2.
22. Shakespeare, Nicholas (1999). Bruce Chatwin. Viking. pp. 92–93.
29. Shakespeare (1999). Bruce Chatwin. pp. 119–120, 166–167.
30. Ignatieff, Michael (25 June 1987). "Interview: Bruce Chatwin". Granta (21):
32.
33. Clapp (1996). With Chatwin. pp. 101–104.
34. Shakespeare (1999). Bruce Chatwin. pp. 98–99, 118–119.
35. Chatwin (1989). What Am I Doing Here (https://archive.org/details/whatamid
oinghere00bruc). p. 76 (https://archive.org/details/whatamidoinghere00bruc/
page/76).
41. Murray, Nicholas (1994). Bruce Chatwin. Seren Books. pp. 30–31.
42. Shakespeare 1999, pp. 158–159.
43. Chatwin (1996). Anatomy of Restlessness (https://archive.org/details/anatom
yofrestles00chat). pp. 11–12 (https://archive.org/details/anatomyofrestles00c
hat/page/11).
48. Shakespeare, Nicholas (29 August 2010). "He wandered, but always came
back: Bruce Chatwin's letters reveal the rock-solid marriage that survived his
gay flings" (http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA235968816&v=2.
1&u=nysl_ca_bethlm&it=r&p=STND&sw=w&asid=8c5ef3b85cebb9613bd2a
df44d32a11e). Sunday Times. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
57. Chatwin, Bruce (1996). Anatomy of Restlessness (https://archive.org/details/
anatomyofrestles00chat/page/75). New York: Viking. p. 75 (https://archive.or
g/details/anatomyofrestles00chat/page/75). ISBN 0-670-86859-0.
62. Murray (1993). Bruce Chatwin. p. 35.
65. Shakespere (1999). Bruce Chatwin. p. 272.
71. Shakespeare 1999, p. 280
72. Chatwin (1996). Anatomy of Restlessness (https://archive.org/details/anatom
yofrestles00chat). p. 13 (https://archive.org/details/anatomyofrestles00chat/p
age/13).
74. Chatwin, Bruce (1997). Anatomy of Restlessness (https://archive.org/details/
anatomyofrestles00bruc). Penguin. pp. 13–14 (https://archive.org/details/ana
tomyofrestles00bruc/page/13).
75. Shakespeare 1999, pp. 287–291.
77. Shakespeare, Nicholas (1999). Bruce Chatwin. New York: Viking. pp. 294–
295.
79. Clapp (1996). With Chatwin. p. 94.
84. Shakespeare, Nicholas (1999). Bruce Chatwin. New York: Viking. pp. 325–
326.
oinghere00bruc). pp. 138–139 (https://archive.org/details/whatamidoinghere
00bruc/page/138).
96. Clapp, Susannah (1996). With Chatwin. p. 179.
97. Chatwin, Bruce (1982). On the Black Hill. London: Jonathan Cape.
03. Shakespeare (1999). Bruce Chatwin. pp. 392–393, 420.
04. Shakespeare (1999). Bruce Chatwin. pp. 429, 424.
06. Shakespeare (1999). Bruce Chatwin. pp. 426, 431–432.
09. Chatwin (1987). The Songlines (https://archive.org/details/songlines00chat).
pp. 12–13 (https://archive.org/details/songlines00chat/page/12).
p. 161 (https://archive.org/details/songlines00chat/page/161).
16. Chatwin. The Songlines. pp. 163–233.
19. Fermor, Patrick Leigh, Dashing for the Post: The Letters of Patrick Leigh, at
376 (John Murray, 2017)(ISBN 978-1473622494). Chatwin visited Fermor in
Greece in 1985 and enjoyed it so much he rented rooms in the village.
"Bruce Chatwin is finishing a book too, next door and we go for huge strides
across the hills every afternoon, and he and Joan concoct delicious dinners
every other night or so."
20. Shakespeare (1999). Bruce Chatwin. pp. 450, 464, 479, 487.
31. Chatwin, Bruce (1988). Utz. London: Jonathan Cape.
37. Theroux's "admiring tribute" to Chatwin (http://www.granta.com/Online-Only/
Paul-Theroux),
38. Amis, Martin (2012). Visiting Mrs. Nabokov. Vintage. pp. 170–178.
40. Shakespeare (1999). Bruce Chatwin. pp. 465, 469–473.
41. Shakespeare (1999). Bruce Chatwin. p. xi.
42. Chatwin, Bruce (1993). Far Journeys. New York: Viking.
43. Chatwin, Bruce (1999). Winding Paths: Photographs from Bruce Chatwin.
Jonathan Cape.
44. Murray, Nicholas (1993). Bruce Chatwin. pp. 123–124.
46. Updike, John (1991). Odd Jobs: Essays and Criticism. Knopf. p. 464.
47. Clapp (1996). With Chatwin. p. 45.
48. Shakespeare (1999). Bruce Chatwin. pp. 117, 171, 467–468.
51. Chatwin (1987). The Songlines
(https://archive.org/details/songlines000chat).
53. Chatwin, Bruce (1989). What Am I Doing Here (https://archive.org/details/wh
atamidoinghere00bruc). p. 288 (https://archive.org/details/whatamidoinghere
00bruc/page/288).
57. Chatwin, Bruce (1989). What Am I Doing Here (https://archive.org/details/wh
atamidoinghere00bruc). New York: Viking. p. 366 (https://archive.org/details/
whatamidoinghere00bruc/page/366).
61. Chatwin, Elizabeth (2010). Under the Sun. pp. 131–139.
64. Chatwin, Jonathan (2008). Anywhere Out of the World: Restlessness in the
work of Bruce Chatwin (https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10036/412
73). pp. 9–10.
66. Chatwin, Jonathan (2008). Anywhere Out of the World: Restlessness in the
work of Bruce Chatwin (https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10036/412
73). p. 10.
oinghere00bruc). p. 366 (https://archive.org/details/whatamidoinghere00bru
c/page/366).
77. Murray, Nicholas (1993). Bruce Chatwin. Seren Books. pp. 39, 44.
78. Murray, Nicholas (1993). Bruce Chatwin. pp. 11–12.
79. Shakespeare, Nicholas (1999). Bruce Chatwin. pp. 564, 569.
80. Shakespeare, Nicholas (1999). Bruce Chatwin. p. 564.
81. Stewart, Rory (25 June 2012). "Walking with Chatwin" (http://www.nybooks.c
om/daily/2012/06/25/walking-with-bruce-chatwin/). The New York Review of
Books. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
82. Harvey, Andrew (2 August 1987). "Footprints of the Ancestor" (https://www.n
ytimes.com/1987/08/02/books/footprints-of-the-ancestors.html?pagewanted=
1). The New York Times. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
85. Allen, Sandra (14 May 2013). "In Patagonia in Patagonia" (http://www.thepari
sreview.org/blog/2013/05/14/in-patagonia-in-patagonia/). The Paris Review.
Retrieved 23 December 2015.
87. Shakespeare, Nicholas (1999). Bruce Chatwin. New York: Viking. p. 569.
90. Murray, Nicholas (1993). Bruce Chatwin. Seren. p. 12.
91. Chatwin, Elizabeth (2010). Under the Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin.
p. 12.
93. Murray, Nicholas (1993). Bruce Chatwin. p. 90.
95. Ignatieff, Michael (25 June 1987). "Interview: Bruce Chatwin". Granta (21):
24.
pp. 13–14.
Jonathan Cape. p. 14.
02. Morrison, Blake (3 September 2010). "Under the Sun: The Letters of Bruce
Chatwin" (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/sep/04/bruce-chatwin-le
tters-nicholas-shakespeare). The Guardian. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
03. "46. Bruce Chatwin; The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945" (http://go.g
alegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA173066618&v=2.1&u=nysl_ca_bethlm
&it=r&p=STND&sw=w&asid=c87255bba66a6fb8db49007ee6fc1ba5). The
Times (London). 5 January 2008. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
pp. 160–161 (https://archive.org/details/songlines00chat/page/160).
06. Raphel, Adrienne (14 April 2014). "The Virtual Moleskine" (http://www.newyo
rker.com/business/currency/the-virtual-moleskine). The New Yorker.
Retrieved 21 February 2016.
07. Harkin, James (12 June 2011). "Resurrecting Moleskine Notebooks" (http://w
ww.newsweek.com/resurrecting-moleskine-notebooks-67817). Newsweek.
Retrieved 23 December 2015.
08. Marriott, Hannah (17 June 2014). "Books inspire Burberry's show at London
Collections: Men" (https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2014/jun/17/books-i
nspire-burberry-show-london-collections-men). The Guardian.
09. Connor, Liz (8 May 2015). "Burberry's Bruce Chatwin books just made your
shelf far more stylish" (https://web.archive.org/web/20151208121230/http://w
ww.gq-magazine.co.uk/style/articles/2015-05/09/burberry-bruce-chatwin-boo
k-release-christopher-bailey). GQ. Archived from the original (http://www.gq-
magazine.co.uk/style/articles/2015-05/09/burberry-bruce-chatwin-book-relea
se-christopher-bailey) on 8 December 2015.
10. "BBC Two – Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin" (https://www.bbc.c
o.uk/programmes/m0008rqv). BBC.
Sources
Chatwin, Bruce (1977). In Patagonia (https://archive.org/details/inpatagonia0
0chat). Jonathan Cape. ISBN 014011291X.
Chatwin, Bruce (1987). The Songlines. Jonathan Cape.
ISBN 9780224024525.
Chatwin, Bruce (2010). Elizabeth Chatwin (ed.). Under the Sun: The Letters
of Bruce Chatwin. Jonathan Cape. ISBN 978-0-224-08989-0.
Chatwin, Bruce (1990). What Am I Doing Here. Pan. ISBN 0-330-31310-X.
Murray, Nicholas (1993). Bruce Chatwin. Seren. ISBN 1-85411-079-9.

Clapp, Susannah (1997). With Chatwin: Portrait of a Writer. Jonathan Cape.
ISBN 978-0-224-03258-2.
Shakespeare, Nicholas (1999). Bruce Chatwin. The Harvill Press. ISBN 1-
86046-544-7.
Antonella Riem, La gabbia innaturale – l'opera di Bruce Chatwin (http://www.

campanottoeditore.com) (pp. 175). UDINE: Campanotto (Italy). 1993.
Documentaries
Paul Yule, In The Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (2x60 mins), BBC, 1999 –
Berwick Universal Pictures
Werner Herzog, Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin, BBC Scotland,
BBC Studios, BBC2, 2019 – Sideways Films
External links
"Bruce Chatwin" (https://web.archive.org/web/20080206101145/http://www.b
rucechatwin.co.uk/), a resource for news related to Bruce Chatwin and his
work
"On the Black Hill." Entry (http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true
&UID=3066) in Literary Encyclopedia
"The Songlines." Entry (http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&U
ID=7782) in Literary Encyclopedia
"Bruce Chatwin." Entry (http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&
UID=837) in Literary Encyclopedia
Moleskine official website (http://www.moleskine.com/en/moleskine-world)
Bruce Chatwin (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0154223/) on IMDb
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Bruce Chatwin

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Bruce Chatwin

Charles Bruce Chatwin FRSL (13 May

Chatwin was born in Sheffield. After Bruce Chatwin, photographed by

Art and archaeology

In the mid-1960s Chatwin grew unhappy at Sotheby's. There were various

Chatwin returned to Sotheby's, and to the surprise of his friends, proposed

Chatwin enrolled in October 1966 at the University of Edinburgh to study

The Nomadic Alternative

Following his departure from Edinburgh, Chatwin decided to pursue a career as

Between 1969 and 1972, as he was working on The Nomadic Alternative,

Chatwin also took photographs of his journeys and attempted to sell

Chatwin spent six months in Patagonia, travelling around gathering stories of

In Patagonia contains fifteen black and white photographs by Chatwin.

This work established Chatwin's reputation as a travel writer. One of his

For In Patagonia Chatwin received the Hawthornden Prize and the E. M.

Ouidah and the Black Hills

Upon his return from Patagonia, Chatwin discovered a change in leadership at

Although Elizabeth Chatwin had accepted her husband's affairs, their

In 1983 Chatwin returned to the topic of nomads and decided to focus on

Chatwin went to Australia to learn more about Aboriginal culture, specifically

The Songlines features a narrator named Bruce whose biography is almost

Chatwin published The Songlines in 1987, and it became a bestseller in the

Illness and ﬁnal works

Chatwin died at a hospital in Nice on 18 January 1989.[135] A memorial service

Chatwin's papers, including 85 moleskine notebooks, were given to the Bodleian

News of Chatwin's AIDS diagnosis first surfaced in September 1988, although

Several 19th and 20th-century writers influenced Chatwin's work. He admitted

Borders are another Chatwin theme. According to Elizabeth Chatwin, he "was

"Nearly every writer of my generation in England has wanted, at

According to his biographer Nicholas Shakespeare, Chatwin's work developed a

Some individuals profiled in In Patagonia were unhappy with Chatwin's

Chatwin's name is used to sell Moleskine notebooks.[204] Chatwin wrote in The

In 2014 the clothing label Burberry produced a collection inspired by Chatwin's

In September 2019 the documentary film Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce

Chatwin, Bruce (1990). What Am I Doing Here. Pan. ISBN 0-330-31310-X.

Murray, Nicholas (1993). Bruce Chatwin. Seren. ISBN 1-85411-079-9.

Antonella Riem, La gabbia innaturale – l'opera di Bruce Chatwin (http://www.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bruce_Chatwin&oldid=959410867"

This page was last edited on 28 May 2020, at 16:52 (UTC).

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