Bruce Chatwin (Hardcover)

An obsessive art collector, Chatwin also acquired people as he did fabulous objects. He took both male and female lovers while continuing to remain married to his wife Elizabeth, seemingly the most enduring relationship of his life. It is her cooperation and tenacity which enabled this biography to come about, as well as Nicholas Shakespeare's exhaustive research (the book was eight years in the making), and his countless interviews with friends and acquaintances from all corners of the globe. It is the international span of Chatwin's experiences that make the reader appreciate his desire to know all cultures and disciplines.

There is some excellent, evocative writing here, particularly in Shakespeare's account of Chatwin's last weeks, his disappointment at not winning the Booker Prize for Utz lifting when a friend told him of acclaimed Italian novelist Alberto Moravia's glowing review of the book in a newspaper. In particular, the detailed passage describing Chatwin's awful, miserable death surrounded by friends and family is harrowing yet moving to read. There are a plethora of adjectives used to describe Chatwin; the list generally includ