Rory MacLean

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the ...

(born 5 November 1954) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

historian and

travel writer The genre of travel literature or travelogue encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. History Early examples of travel literature include the '' Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' (generally considered ...

who lives and works in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and the United Kingdom. His best known works are ''Stalin’s Nose'', a travelogue through eastern Europe after the fall of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

; ''Magic Bus'', a history of the Asia Overland

hippie trail The hippie trail (also the overland) was an overland journey taken by members of the hippie subculture and others from the mid-1950s to the late 1970s travelling from Europe and Western Asia, West Asia through South Asia via countries such a ...

; and ''Berlin: Imagine a City'', a portrait of that city over 500 years. In 2019

John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. A "sophist ...

wrote that MacLean "must surely be the outstanding, and most indefatigable, traveller-writer of our time."

Biography

MacLean was born in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, the son of Canadian newspaper publisher Andrew Dyas MacLean and Joan Howe, former secretary to author

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer, best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his ...

at ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' and part-inspiration for the fictional

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

character

Miss Moneypenny Miss Moneypenny, later assigned the first names of Eve or Jane, is a fictional character in the James Bond novels and films. She is secretary to M (James Bond), M, who is Bond's superior officer and head of the British Secret Intelligence Serv ...

. He grew up in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, graduating from

Upper Canada College Upper Canada College (UCC) is an independent day and boarding school for boys in Toronto, Ontario, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. The college is widely described as Canada's most prestigious preparatory school, and ha ...

and

Toronto Metropolitan University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU, or Toronto Met), formerly Ryerson University, is a Public university, public research university located in Toronto, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, Toronto, Gar ...

. For ten years he was involved in movie productions, working with

David Hemmings David Leslie Edward Hemmings (18 November 1941 – 3 December 2003) was an English actor, director, and producer of film and television. Originally trained as a boy soprano in operatic roles, he began appearing in films as a child actor in the ...

and

Ken Russell Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films were mainly liberal adaptations of ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

in Berlin and

Marlene Dietrich Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however, Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...

in Paris. In 1989 he won ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' inaugural travel writing competition and changed from screen to prose writing. After completing nine travel books in the UK he wrote ''Berlin: Imagine a City'' in the capital where he blogged for the ''Meet the Germans'' website of the

Goethe-Institut The Goethe-Institut (; GI, ''Goethe Institute'') is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit German culture, cultural organization operational worldwide with more than 150 cultural centres, promoting the study of the German language abroad and en ...

. On the publication of his 15th book ''Pravda Ha Ha: Truth, Lies and the End of Europe'' Jan Morris wrote "This is a tremendous thing that MacLean is creating; a new kind of history, in several dimensions and innumerable moods, that adds up to — across the span of his books — a great and continuing work of literature." He is a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

and founder and curator of the annual Sherborne Travel Writing Festival.

Writing career

MacLean's first book, ''Stalin's Nose'' (1992), told the story of a journey from Berlin to Moscow in a

Trabant Trabant () is a series of B-segment, small cars produced from 1957 until 1991 by former East Germany, East German car manufacturer HQM Sachsenring GmbH, VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau. Four models were made: the Trabant P 50, Trabant 50 ...

and became a UK top ten best-seller, winning the

Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire, although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...

's Best First Work prize.

William Dalrymple William Benedict Hamilton-Dalrymple (born 20 March 1965) is a Delhi-based Scottish people, Scottish historian and art historian, as well as a curator, broadcaster and critic. He spends nine months of each year on his goat farm in India. He i ...

called it, "the most extraordinary debut in travel writing since

Bruce Chatwin Charles Bruce Chatwin (13 May 194018 January 1989) was an English travel writer, novelist and journalist. His first book, ''In Patagonia'' (1977), established Chatwin as a travel writer, although he considered himself instead a storytelling, s ...

’s ''In Patagonia''".

Colin Thubron Colin Gerald Dryden Thubron (born 14 June 1939) is a British travel writer and novelist. In 2008, ''The Times'' ranked him among the 50 greatest postwar British writers. He is a contributor to ''The New York Review of Books'', ''The Times'', '' ...

considered the book to be a "surreal masterpiece".Colin Thubron, in his Introduction to a new edition of ''Stalin’s Nose'' (Tauris Parke, London, 2008) His second book ''The Oatmeal Ark'' (1997) followed, exploring immigrant dreams from

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and across

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. It was nominated for the

International Dublin Literary Award The International Dublin Literary Award (), established as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. It promotes excellence in world literature and is solely ...

. When the chance arose to meet the Nobel Prize laureate

Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and political activist. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. She served as State Counsellor of Myanmar and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Myanmar), Ministe ...

, MacLean travelled to

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

. ''Under the Dragon'' (1998) told the story of that country and won an Arts Council of England Writers' Award in 1997. In ''Falling for Icarus'' (2004), MacLean moved to

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

to hand build—and fly once—a flying machine to come to terms with the death of his mother and to examine the relevance of

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

to modern lives. In his book ''Magic Bus'' (2006), Maclean followed the many young Western people who in the 1960s and 1970s blazed the '

' from Istanbul to India. His seventh book ''Missing Lives'' (with photographer Nick Danziger) (2010) told the stories of fifteen people who went missing during the

Yugoslav wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

. His tenth book, ''Berlin: Imagine a City'' (2014) is a non-fiction history of the German capital. When the 2018 Edinburgh International Book Festival commissioned ''The Freedom Papers'' from 51 writers to explore ideas related to freedom, Maclean wrote a bleak essay about daily life in North Korea being a “scripted performance”. He read this on BBC Radio 4’s ''

Book of the Week ''Book of the Week'' is a long-running BBC Radio 4 series, first broadcast in 1998. It features daily readings from an abridged version of a selected book read over five or occasionally ten weekday episodes. Each episode is approximately 15 min ...

'' strand.

Humanitarian work

MacLean worked with photographer Nick Danziger on books ''Missing Lives'' (

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of rules of war and ...

, Geneva, 2010) and ''Beneath the Carob Trees'' (CMP, Nicosia, 2016) about the tens of thousands of Europeans who vanished in the

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

and the Cyprus conflict, and the use of

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

to enable the relatives of missing persons to recover the remains of their loved ones and so help to restore trust between communities. MacLean and Danziger also collaborated on ''Another Life'' (Unbound, London, 2017), following 15 impoverished families in eight countries over 15 years to examine the effect of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Millennium Development Goals In the United Nations, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 created following the Millennium Summit, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. These w ...

on lives lived on the edge, as well as

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

pluralism projects in

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

and

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

Works

* ''Stalin’s Nose'' (1992) * ''The Oatmeal Ark'' (1997) * ''Under the Dragon'' (1998) * ''Next Exit Magic Kingdom'' (2000) * ''Falling for Icarus'' (2004) * ''Magic Bus'' (2006) * ''Missing Lives'' (2010) * ''Gift of Time'' (2011) * ''Back in the USSR: Heroic Adventures in Transnistria'' (2014) * ''Berlin: Imagine a City'' (2014) * ''Wunderkind: Portraits of 50 Contemporary German Artists'' (2016) * ''Beneath the Carob Trees: The Lost Lives of Cyprus'' (2016) * ''Pictures of You: Ten Journeys in Time'' (2017) * ''In North Korea: Lives and Lies in the State of Truth'' (2017) * ''Pravda Ha Ha: Truth, Lies and the End of Europe'' (2019)

Notes

References

*Dalrymple, William
''The Last Literary Traveller''
Prospect, London July 2008 *De Groot, Gerard

Washington Post, October 2014 *Cornwell, Tim
''Roads Less Travelled''
British Council, September 2018 *MacDonald, Hugh
''Lies became the glue that held people together''
Herald Scotland, November 2019

External links

Rory MacLean's website

British Council Literature

Rory MacLean's Berlin blog for the Goethe-Institut

Elementum - a Journal of Nature & Story ''As the Wheels Turn''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maclean, Rory 1954 births Living people Canadian travel writers British travel writers

Travel Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical Location (geography), locations. Travel can be done by Pedestrian, foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without Baggage, luggage, a ...

Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature