Can I speak . . . Box 35
constantly being jolted . . . ABC, 25.1.83
concierge of Brigitte Bardot . . .
ABC, 12.8.87
beautiful, resilient and resourceful . . . ABC, 25.1.83
She, as you . . . BC to parents, 12.1.83
It was absolutely . . . BC to DM, 1.3.83
The sky is so . . . BC to DR, 23.1.83
sustained meditation . . . ABC, 12.8.87
indeed perhaps the reason . . . BC to Elisabeth Sifton, 7.2.83
ancient and traditional . . . Theodor Strehlow, Australian Aboriginal Songs, 1955
It is a 20th century . . . BC to Kath Strehlow, 24.8.83
was a real . . . BC to Anne-Marie Mykyta, 26.11.84
Sometimes, when . . . BC to KS, August 1983
Things never seen . . . Box 35
I sat down . . . BC to CT
A man set out . . . Epilogue, El Hacedor, 1960
vastly grander . . . comparison ABC, 11.5.83
When you confronted . . . BC to CT
At last! I’ve . . . BC to EC, 28.9.83
So you’re a . . . SL, 91
good-looking in . . . SL, 46
A good deal . . . Box 35
Whether it happened . . . ABC, 12.8.87
For myself, I . . . SL, 116
So what was . . . SL, 112
Never have I caught . . . BC to Petronella Vaarson-Morel, 8.1.84
Then she strolled . . . SL, 112
They were two . . . 316
XXXI: The Bat Cave
Tous les anglais . . . Box 34
hideous food poisoning . . . BC to DR, 18.4.83
I am terribly sorry . . . BC to PVM, 8.1.84
flat, dried-out, alienated . . . BC to DR, 18.4.83
XXXII: An Hour with Bruce Chatwin
Everyone – especially . . . Box 35
We walked off and . . . EC to GC, 3.6.83
He’s having a bad . . . EC to GC, 12.11.84
I come from . . . Obituary, Radio 4, January 1989
I made the experiment . . . Box 35
To understand human . . . ABC, 8.5.84
A few years ago . . . BC to parents, February 1982
the point where . . . ABC, 8.5.84
should be given . . . BC to FW, 19.2.84
a man of infinite gentleness . . . Box 35
which appeared . . . Box 35
Black mood . . . Box 35
There is a point . . . ABC, 8.5.84
Australia, I find . . . BC to MB, 20.10.83
Aboriginal Australia . . . BC to MB, ND
What do you . . . BC to PVM, 8.1.84
Thinking of you . . . BC to Lydia Livingstone [January?], 1984
They wrote to me . . . BC to MB, 20.10.83
I agree with you . . . BC to MB, 11.12.87
his sincere disgust . . . TLS, 16.6.89
There have been . . . BC to MB, 8.2.88
I’m fed up . . . BC to Anne-Marie Mykyta, ND
Llosa and I . . . BC to MB, 20.10.83
I said (realising . . . BC to MB, 20.10.83
Bruce, Salman Rushdie . . . Geoff Bagshaw to PVM, March 1984
He left his wife . . . BC to Nin Dutton, 1.11.84
The spirit of generosity . . . Box 35
The craziest thing . . . BC to CT
SR kept audience . . . Box 35
I still cannot . . . Box 35
Mrs Houston worked . . . SL, 288
XXXIII: A Sincere Fumbling
It is ironic . . . BC to John Pawson, February 1986
I’m longing . . . Jasper Conran to BC, 24.3.84
The novel, if such . . . BC to MB, 20.10.83
I assume it is the . . . TM to BC, 4.2.85
Should we say . . . BC to TM, 1.3.85
The book is not . . . BC to ND,
Soupy pre-Fascist . . . BC to MB, 4.6.83
Without wanting to . . . BC to MB, 1.3.85
I’m only capable . . . BC to MB, 11.3.86
this promenade-deck . . . BC to MB, ND
This a.m. there . . . EC to GC,
This peripatetic existence . . . BC to JK, 17.2.86
and needed clearance . . . EC to GC, December 1984
the most beautiful . . . BC to DM, 30.1.85
I’ve put a block . . . BC to MB, 1.3.85
I have a room . . . BC to MB, 11.1.85
a really good egg! . . . BC to ND, 1.11.84
It’s ambitious, Difficult . . . 24.8.84
I feel I must . . . BC to MB, December [1984?]
A disaster with . . . BC to Penelope Tree, 2.7.84
Although Bruce’s mind . . . From “A Nomad Collector”
It would be terrific . . . BC to MB, 1.3.85
The whole Taygetus . . . BC to EC, 30.8.70
weathered and faded . . . A Time of Gifts (John Murray, 1977), 23
Abstruse art-forms . . . Spectator, 18.2.89
Up behind Kardamyli . . . BC to DM, 30.1.85
crackpot theory . . . BBC2, The Book Programme, 26.9.79
is not simply . . . WAIDH, 139
To saunter . . . David Plante, “The Restlessness of Bruce Chatwin”
a hollow-chested figure . . . OTBH, 17
Nothing can be more . . . Box 12
Compression is what’s . . . BC to PLF, August 1985
XXXIV: There is a God
And I will be . . . Robert Byron, The Station, Duckworth, 1928, 143
‘Golden Boy’ . . . Anecdotage, 85
To anyone who . . . The Station, 148
his entrenched aesthetic . . . Fourteen Friends
No, Bruce, I said . . . James Lees-Milne, 1.8.80
Athos is obviously . . . BC to MB, April 1985
My whole life . . . WAIDH, 282
Some form of religion . . . Box 34
The search for . . . Box 35
religion is a technique . . . Box 31
in the Greek . . . Box 35
Paddy says . . . Box 34
a sweet freckle-faced novice . . . Box 34
There must be a God . . . Box 34
XXXV: India
Catarrh started in . . . BC to DR, 27.7.85
I went wind-surfing . . . BC to PLF, August 1985
The house we were . . . BC to parents, 1.2.86
My biggest worry . . . EC to GC, 8.12.85
The house, it turned out . . . BC to parents, 1.2.86
The palace in Jodhpur . . . BC to parents, 1.2.86
The first stab . . . BC to JK, 27.1.86
Murray was a . . . BC to JK, 27.1.86
the maharanee choked . . . BC to parents, 1.2.86
almost to the day . . . BC to MB, 9.2.86
He is the ‘identical twin’ . . . BC to DM, 15.2.86
I did my usual babble . . . BC to parents, 1.2.86
One is so well . . . BC to SS, 5.3.86
A cool blue study . . . BC to JK, 27.1.86
I’ve not seen her . . . BC to DM, 15.2.86
I adore it here . . . BC to JK, 17.2.86
Well, I have to . . . BC to the Bails, 9.2.86
I’ve had a terrible . . . BC to Roberto Calasso, 18.2.86
I’ve decided the . . . BC to PLF, ND
Old English tea . . . BC to JK, ND
On the mountain above . . . BC to EC, 27.3.86
What was this? . . . Box 31
XXXVI: An A1 Medical Curiosity
On the way back . . . EC to GC, 4.8.86
allergy to dust . . . EC to GC, February 1986
He can only go . . . EC to GC, 4.8.86
I put this into . . . The Times, 20.1.89
which to all the publishers . . . BC to MB, 3.11.86
I’m going to . . . BC to CT
thinking that a . . . BC to MB, 3.11.86
He was in . . . Medical records
The fact is I . . . BC to MB, 30.11.86
definite glimpse of . . . Matthew Spender, Within Tuscany (Viking, 1992), 159
I saw green-capped . . . BC
to NS
the occasional inappropriate . . . Medical records, 12.9.86
the self is all . . . BC to MB, 3.11.86
One point cannot . . . Letter to LRB, summer 1988
has previously only . . . 27.2.87
an extremely rare . . . BC to ND, 17.10.86
an Al medical curiosity . . . BC to MB, 3.11.86
In the summer . . . BC to CW, 12.12.86
My illness was . . . 12.12.86
XXXVII: The Harlequin
Where in your . . . Granta 21, 1987
self-styled great lover . . . BC to EC, June 1967
I had thought . . . BC to CW, 22.2.88
You know that . . . Dr Rudolf Just to KF, 9.2.67
Under the heading . . . Utz, 32
Rudolf’s treasures . . . Utz, 13
The shelves were . . . Utz, 49
the arch improvisor . . . Utz, 114
No idea of . . . BC to TM, March 1988
Ja! Ja! . . . Utz, 46
a man’s relation . . . Box 35
on the bourgeoisie . . . Georges Borchardt to DR, 12.3.79
I’m riveted by . . . BC to A-MM, 26.11.84
Hoffinann-like tale . . . BC to CW, 12.12.86
My legs are . . . BC to ND, 19.1.87
it was a city . . . Utz, 119
Smells of dustbins . . . Box 35
Cellini, Montezuma, Noah . . . C. Holdefer, “The Spoils of Utz” in Bruce Chatwin, Claudine Verley, ed., Les Cahiers Forell 4 (Poitiers, 1994), 68
names that meant . . . Utz, 92
Wry, evocative, sensitive . . . Private Eye, October 1988
By April . . . Utz, 88–9
there was never . . . Utz, 138
Plagues and wars do . . . Andrew Sullivan, Love Undetectable (Chatto, 1998)
And from that hour . . . Utz, 152
Elizabeth is being marvellous . . . BC, to ND, 17.10.86
Have been giving . . . EC to GC, 25.2.87
Elizabeth and I . . . BC to EC, 6.5.88
XXXVIII: A Cosmic Book
Are you a traveller . . . ABC, 14.3.84
the Cyclades Islands . . . ABC, 11.5.83
Look at the greatest . . . ABC, 11.5.83
The journey it describes . . . 8.2.88
Not many authors . . . TM to Gillon Aitken, 5.2.88
Reading your Songlines . . . SH to BC, 23.11.88
If there is one . . . Stewart Harris, The Myth of Primitivism (Routledge, Keegan & Paul, 1991)
One wonders where . . . Patrick White to TM, ND
It’s a low, rather . . . BC to NS, June 1987
Because to pass off . . . “Gentleman of the Road”, El Pais, 26.9.93
the burden he’s been carrying . . . Observer, 19.11.89
There are masses . . . BC to ND, 19.1.87
in semi-hallucination . . . BC to CW, 22.2.88
All in all The Songlines . . . BC to Charles & Brenda Tomlinson, 14.7.87
You called what . . . TM to BC, 13.10.86
XXXIX: My Inexplicable Fever
I apologize that . . . Medical records, 7.7.87
He has no side . . . ND [July?] 1987
Jasper thought it . . . BC to Shirley Conran, ND
would appear to . . . Box 35
Je vais vous . . . BC to RC, 20.2.87
This poses problems . . . Medical records, 17.3.87
A wheelchair will . . . WAIDH, 141
He’s really awfully . . . EC to GC, 18.5.87
Then to Prague . . . EC to GC, 30.5.87
I am sorry . . . BC to George Ortiz, 7.8.87
Then . . . ? Madrid? . . . BC to MB, ND
There’s something about . . . BC to GG, 20.9.87
febrile illness . . . Medical records, February 1988
I fear that all . . . 24.11.87
We went first . . . BC to MB, 8.2.88
highly suspicious . . . Medical records, 25.2.88
Suppose that I . . . Gillian Rose, Love’s Work (Vintage, 1997), 70
I’ve been on . . . BC to NS, June 1987
AIDS and the prowling . . . Guardian, “When sex becomes sin”, 1.12.89
With AIDS came also . . . NDBW, 497
his impenetrable aura . . . 417
There was a kind . . . 416
The first news is . . . BC to ND, 29.2.88
Still convinced that . . . Medical records, 13.6.88
Last night Sister Patterson . . . Box 34
That’s it . . . Box 34
Perhaps this will be . . . TM to BC
The heart is there . . . NDBW, 414
I can honestly say . . . Rosy Hall to GC, 23.1.89
Can I take a . . . BC to BB, ND
sapphire-blue visionary’s . . . Anecdotage, 33
manic depression . . . GC to EC
Ma, I have very . . . JC to GC, ND
Profound loss of walking . . . Medical records, 10.6.88
I am entirely paralysed . . . Charles Nicholl, Somebody Else: Arthur Rimbaud in Africa, 1880–91 (Jonathan Cape, 1997)
makes himself a seer . . . Kay Redfield Jamison, Touched with Fire (Macmillan, 1993), 110.
incoherent prophecies . . . VOO, 119
a kind of Middle . . . BC to MB, 11.12.87
He spread out . . . Box 30
What I’ve kept . . . SH, Adelaide, March 1984
But he knew that . . . Box 30
I have been buying . . . BC to GC, 26.6.88
I would like . . . 25.7.88
Any ‘new’ species . . . Box 34
Mr Chatwin is, of course . . . Medical records, 10.8.88
Let me put it in . . . TM to BC, 17.7.87
I’ve said it before . . . TM to BC, 11.2.88
XL: Fallen Angel
possession by the Beast . . . Box 34
thereby completely screwing . . . BC to ND, 28.8.88
The promise of a . . . NDBW, 498
The only group . . . Michael Elmore-Meegan to NS, 1.10.96
He seems better . . . EC to KS, 18.10.88
It will be just . . . EC to GC, 14.11.88
incorrigibly stylish . . . Independent, 19.1.89
XLI: The Chatwin Effect
Heroic saga . . . Box 34
I was delighted . . . CW to EC, 23.1.89
J’apprends avec tristesse . . . Jack Lang to EC, 20.1.89
Despite the large . . . Richard Bull to EC, 22.1.89
I can’t write this letter, I’m afraid . . . PL to EC, ND
The stars know . . . Box 35
a sexuagenarian adolescent . . . WAIDH, 143
Charley the Pioneer . . . IP, 162
at about the time . . . With Chatwin, ix
Malraux’s breathless career . . . WAIDH, 119
He was an inspiration to me . . . Paul Theroux to EC, 26.1.89