What do you think?
Rate this book
Bruce Chatwin: A BBC Radio Collection: In Patagonia & more
A collection of full-cast dramas and readings from the giant of travel writing – plus a bonus documentary
Author and adventurer Bruce Chatwin was one of the 20th Century’s most charismatic writers. His first book, In Patagonia, changed the face of travel writing and made him a literary sensation. Collected here are dramatisations and readings of some of his best-known work, as well as a bonus programme shedding light on his relationships and writing.
In Patagonia – Chatwin’s picaresque masterpiece has been described as ‘probably the most influential travel book written since the war’. This transportive dramatisation stars Russell Tovey as a writer on a quest to the very end of the world in search of mythical beasts.
On the Black Hill – Recorded on location in the Black Mountains, this is the moving tale of the lifelong bond between two identical twins, and their unbreakable tie to the land they farm. Ioan Meredith stars as Lewis and Benjamin Jones.
What Am I Doing Here? – Patrick Malahide reads five essential pieces taken from Chatwin’s posthumous collection of essays. In 'The Volga', ‘Your Father’s Eyes Are Blue Again’, ‘The Bey’, ‘The Albatross’ and 'Konstantin Melnikov', we are taken on a cruise down Russia's great brown waterway on the Maxim Gorky, hear of hope regained, and share a toast to fantastic projects realised and unrealised.
The Songlines – Michael Siberry reads this 10-part abridged account of Chatwin’s travels across Australia in search of the Aboriginal ‘songlines’: invisible pathways that are both intricate sources of personal identity and territorial markers.
The Bruce Chatwin – Chatwin’s editor and biographer Susannah Clapp looks through the postcards she received from him over the years, reflecting on what these missives reveal about the iconic writer.
Cast and credits
Written by Bruce Chatwin
Text copyright Bruce Chatwin 1977 (In Patagonia), 1982 (On the Black Hill), 1987 (The Songlines)
What Am I Doing Here? copyright The Estate of Bruce Chatwin 1989
In Patagonia
Russell Tovey, David Sterne, Noni Lewis, Hasan Dixon, Melissa Vaughan, Ewan Bailey, Florencia Cordeu, Helen Schlesinger, Julio Galán
Directed by Ciaran Bermingham
Adapted by Sebastian Bazckiewicz
Production Jenny Mendez
Satoshi Kubo
Keith Graham and Jenni Burnett
With thanks to Susannah Clapp
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 6 Aug 2023
On the Black Hill
Ioan Meredith, Gwen Watford, Ian Hogg, Robin Davies, Gerald James, June Barrie, Dorien Thomas, Sue Broomfield, Sue Soames, Peter Howell, Huw Tudor, Matthew Routley, Simon Price, Claire Watkins, Sian Watkins
Directed on location in the Black Mountains by Adrian Mourby, BBC Wales
Dramatised by Charles Way with Robert Blythe
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 2 Mar 1987
The Volga
Read by Patrick Malahide
First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 11-12 May 1989
What Am I Doing Here?
Read by Patrick Malahide
First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 3 Sep 1990
Konstantin Melnikov
Read by Patrick Malahide
First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 10 Sep 1990
The Songlines
Abridged in ten episodes by David Buck
Read by Michael Siberry
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 22 Jun-3 Jul 1987
The Bruce Chatwin
Presented by Susannah Clapp
First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 1 Jul 2009
Author and adventurer Bruce Chatwin was one of the 20th Century’s most charismatic writers. His first book, In Patagonia, changed the face of travel writing and made him a literary sensation. Collected here are dramatisations and readings of some of his best-known work, as well as a bonus programme shedding light on his relationships and writing.
In Patagonia – Chatwin’s picaresque masterpiece has been described as ‘probably the most influential travel book written since the war’. This transportive dramatisation stars Russell Tovey as a writer on a quest to the very end of the world in search of mythical beasts.
On the Black Hill – Recorded on location in the Black Mountains, this is the moving tale of the lifelong bond between two identical twins, and their unbreakable tie to the land they farm. Ioan Meredith stars as Lewis and Benjamin Jones.
What Am I Doing Here? – Patrick Malahide reads five essential pieces taken from Chatwin’s posthumous collection of essays. In 'The Volga', ‘Your Father’s Eyes Are Blue Again’, ‘The Bey’, ‘The Albatross’ and 'Konstantin Melnikov', we are taken on a cruise down Russia's great brown waterway on the Maxim Gorky, hear of hope regained, and share a toast to fantastic projects realised and unrealised.
The Songlines – Michael Siberry reads this 10-part abridged account of Chatwin’s travels across Australia in search of the Aboriginal ‘songlines’: invisible pathways that are both intricate sources of personal identity and territorial markers.
The Bruce Chatwin – Chatwin’s editor and biographer Susannah Clapp looks through the postcards she received from him over the years, reflecting on what these missives reveal about the iconic writer.
Cast and credits
Written by Bruce Chatwin
Text copyright Bruce Chatwin 1977 (In Patagonia), 1982 (On the Black Hill), 1987 (The Songlines)
What Am I Doing Here? copyright The Estate of Bruce Chatwin 1989
In Patagonia
Russell Tovey, David Sterne, Noni Lewis, Hasan Dixon, Melissa Vaughan, Ewan Bailey, Florencia Cordeu, Helen Schlesinger, Julio Galán
Directed by Ciaran Bermingham
Adapted by Sebastian Bazckiewicz
Production Jenny Mendez
Satoshi Kubo
Keith Graham and Jenni Burnett
With thanks to Susannah Clapp
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 6 Aug 2023
On the Black Hill
Ioan Meredith, Gwen Watford, Ian Hogg, Robin Davies, Gerald James, June Barrie, Dorien Thomas, Sue Broomfield, Sue Soames, Peter Howell, Huw Tudor, Matthew Routley, Simon Price, Claire Watkins, Sian Watkins
Directed on location in the Black Mountains by Adrian Mourby, BBC Wales
Dramatised by Charles Way with Robert Blythe
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 2 Mar 1987
The Volga
Read by Patrick Malahide
First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 11-12 May 1989
What Am I Doing Here?
Read by Patrick Malahide
First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 3 Sep 1990
Konstantin Melnikov
Read by Patrick Malahide
First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 10 Sep 1990
The Songlines
Abridged in ten episodes by David Buck
Read by Michael Siberry
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 22 Jun-3 Jul 1987
The Bruce Chatwin
Presented by Susannah Clapp
First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 1 Jul 2009
Audible Audio
Published April 18, 2024
1 person is currently reading
About the author
Bruce Chatwin
68 books680 followersCharles Bruce Chatwin was an English novelist and travel writer. He won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel On the Black Hill (1982).
In 1972, Chatwin interviewed the 93-year-old architect and designer Eileen Gray in her Paris salon, where he noticed a map of the area of South America called Patagonia, which she had painted. "I've always wanted to go there," Bruce told her. "So have I," she replied, "go there for me." Two years later in November 1974, Chatwin flew out to Lima in Peru, and reached Patagonia a month later. When he arrived, he left the newspaper with a telegram: "Have gone to Patagonia." He spent six months in the area, a trip which resulted in the book In Patagonia (1977). This work established his reputation as a travel writer. Later, 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 alleged to have been fictionalised.
Later works included a novel based on the slave trade, The Viceroy of Ouidah, which he researched with extended stays in Benin, West Africa. For The Songlines (1987), a work combining fiction and non-fiction, Chatwin went to Australia. He studied the culture to express how the songs of the Aborigines are a cross between a creation myth, an atlas and an Aboriginal man's personal story. He also related the travelling expressed in The Songlines to his own travels and the long nomadic past of humans. Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, his novel On the Black Hill (1982) was set closer to home, in the hill farms of the Welsh Borders. It focuses on the relationship between twin brothers, Lewis and Benjamin, who grow up isolated from the course of twentieth century history. Utz (1988), was a novel about the obsession that leads people to collect. Set in Prague, the novel details the life and death of Kaspar Utz, a man obsessed with his collection of Meissen porcelain.
Chatwin was working on a number of new ideas for future novels at the time of his death from AIDS in 1989, including a transcontinental epic, provisionally titled Lydia Livingstone.
In 1972, Chatwin interviewed the 93-year-old architect and designer Eileen Gray in her Paris salon, where he noticed a map of the area of South America called Patagonia, which she had painted. "I've always wanted to go there," Bruce told her. "So have I," she replied, "go there for me." Two years later in November 1974, Chatwin flew out to Lima in Peru, and reached Patagonia a month later. When he arrived, he left the newspaper with a telegram: "Have gone to Patagonia." He spent six months in the area, a trip which resulted in the book In Patagonia (1977). This work established his reputation as a travel writer. Later, 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 alleged to have been fictionalised.
Later works included a novel based on the slave trade, The Viceroy of Ouidah, which he researched with extended stays in Benin, West Africa. For The Songlines (1987), a work combining fiction and non-fiction, Chatwin went to Australia. He studied the culture to express how the songs of the Aborigines are a cross between a creation myth, an atlas and an Aboriginal man's personal story. He also related the travelling expressed in The Songlines to his own travels and the long nomadic past of humans. Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, his novel On the Black Hill (1982) was set closer to home, in the hill farms of the Welsh Borders. It focuses on the relationship between twin brothers, Lewis and Benjamin, who grow up isolated from the course of twentieth century history. Utz (1988), was a novel about the obsession that leads people to collect. Set in Prague, the novel details the life and death of Kaspar Utz, a man obsessed with his collection of Meissen porcelain.
Chatwin was working on a number of new ideas for future novels at the time of his death from AIDS in 1989, including a transcontinental epic, provisionally titled Lydia Livingstone.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
No one has reviewed this book yet.