Jonathan Raban – författare

It is no surprise that one of the earliest works in English literature should be a poem about the sea: the sea has been a source of fascination from the earliest times, and the Anglo-Saxon poem 'The Seafarer' is only the first in a long series of writings which ponder its mystery.A powerful and restless presence in real life, the sea is one of the most ubiquitous and protean symbols in literature, changing in response to shifts in sensibility, and holding a mirror to all who confront it - Renaissance explorers and Augustan gentlemen, Romantic outcasts and Victorian travellers, small-boat sailors, naturalists and novelists, poets and oceanographers: men and women in a state of wonder before the sea.Jonathan Raban brings a special awareness and knowledge to his role as editor; in the words of Colin Thubron, 'nobody of his generation writes more subtly or imaginatively on travel'. Raban's introduction constitutes an important essay on the meaning of the sea in literature, and the pieces he has chosen display the exhilarating richness of writing in the tradition. Alongside extracts from the acknowledged marine masterpieces are many unexpected delights: Emily Dickinson's affirmative poem 'Exhalation is the Going'; a meditation on a seaside holiday by Larkin; Jane Austen's tart satirizing of Byron's Romanticized sea; Thoreau's contemplation of monsters and lost anchors off Cape Cod; Willard Bascom's brilliantly observed description of breaking waves.As richly varied and enthralling as the sea itself, this sparkling collection spans the centuries from AD 900 to the present and forms a unique and important body of writing to delight in and admire.

A stunning success...Raban takes us floating through the heart of America...more successful than 99% of the books about America since De Tocqueville's Democracy in America' New York Times 'Mr Raban has a keen ear, but, for the river itself, he has to evince not only a keen eye but a capacity to use a painter's palette. He gives us the strong brown god in all its rage, sullenness and beauty' Anthony Burgess, Observer 'This is a fascinating and enchanting book. It is never dull, and yet there are facts aplenty to be picked up on the way. I enjoyed every mile of the journey' Evening Standard

‘A wonderful, rushing, crowded, enlightening voyage . . . A book which, in its ingenious understanding, its acceptance of a very imperfect world, and its energetic and constant fascination with human variety, should do a great deal to dispel the easiest and therefore the most prolific paranoid deception which the Western imagination has now fabricated in its desperate attempt to avoid facing reality’ Angus Wilson, Observer ‘A gem of a book, full of events and people and philosophy’ Sunday Telegraph‘With an eye for the striking scene and entertaining incident he combines a perceptiveness of deeper realities that makes Arabia more than an amusing travellers’ journal’ Daily Telegraph‘A very enjoyable book . . . It is racy and entertaining travel writing’ Cosmopolitan‘The advent of a new travel writer of the first rank is an occasion to celebrate. Such a discovery is Jonathan Raban, whose Arabia is a tour de force’ Yorkshire Post

An entrancing travelogue from celebrated writer Jonathan Raban.First published in 1999, Passage to Juneau is an account of Raban's personal journey from Seattle to the Alaskan Capital by boat through the meandering sea route, the Inside Passage, told in parallel to the same voyage taken by Captain George Vancouver in the late eighteenth century.Described by Ian McEwan as 'Raban at his best', this is extraordinary travel writing, told from two very different perspectives. A book about the idea of loss, Raban is home but still, he is very much still at sea.

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2023'A beautiful, compelling memoir . . . Father and Son is an exquisite, sometimes lunatic tension between powerful emotions and carnage on one side, and on the other, the conventional codes of what must remain unsaid. This, Raban's final work, is a gorgeous achievement" – Ian McEwanOn 11 June 2011, three days short of his sixty-ninth birthday, Jonathan Raban suffered a stroke which left him unable to use the right side of his body. Learning to use a wheelchair in a rehab facility outside Seattle and resisting the ministrations of the nurses overseeing his recovery, Raban began to reflect upon the measure of his own life in the face of his own mortality. Together with the chronicle of his recovery is the extraordinary story of his parents’ marriage, the early years of which were conducted by letter while his father fought in the Second World War.Jonathan Raban engages profoundly and candidly with some of the biggest questions at the heart of what it means to be alive, laying bare the human capacity to withstand trauma, as well as the warmth, strength, and humour that persist despite it. Father and Son, the final work from the peerless man of letters, is a tremendous, continent-sweeping story of love and resilience in the face of immense loss.

'A beautiful, compelling memoir . . . This, Raban's final work, is a gorgeous achievement" – Ian McEwanOn 11 June 2011, three days short of his sixty-ninth birthday, Jonathan Raban suffered a stroke which left him unable to use the right side of his body. Learning to use a wheelchair in a rehab facility outside Seattle and resisting the ministrations of the nurses overseeing his recovery, Raban began to reflect upon the measure of his own life in the face of his own mortality. Together with the chronicle of his recovery is the extraordinary story of his parents’ marriage, the early years of which were conducted by letter while his father fought in the Second World War.Jonathan Raban engages profoundly and candidly with some of the biggest questions at the heart of what it means to be alive, laying bare the human capacity to withstand trauma, as well as the warmth, strength, and humour that persist despite it. Father and Son, the final work from the peerless man of letters, is a tremendous, continent-sweeping story of love and resilience in the face of immense loss.

At the turn of the millennium, two immigrants are drawn to the United States by their own versions of the American Dream.For Tom Janeway - a Hungarian-born English intellectual most at home with his books - it's the family he thought he'd never have. For Chick - an illegal alien newly escaped from a cargo container - it's the land of plenty he imagined back in China.But as the stock market hits a new high, anti-globalist riots break out in the streets, a terrorist is arrested and a child disappears, the two men's dreams collide in a way neither could have anticipated. Unjustly accused of a horrific crime, estranged from his wife and his beloved young son, Tom's life is rapidly unravelling. Chick, meanwhile, has a burgeoning business by day but no safe place to lay his bed at night. For both, the New World proves surprisingly full of old ways.Moving, funny and hugely entertaining, Jonathan Raban's Waxwings brilliantly captures the landscape and life of contemporary America.

Driving Home is a collection of Jonathan Raban's travel writing and essays, spanning two decades and charting its course through American history and world events. Jonathan Raban has written about people and places in transition or on the margins, of journeys undertaken and destinations never quite reached; of isolation and alienation, but also of what it means to belong, to feel rooted.He writes with an outsider’s eye for the public and the personal, about political, social, and cultural affairs, and about literature, his tone intimate but never nostalgic, and always fresh.Variously frank, witty, and provocative, Driving Home is part essay collection, part diary – and wholly engrossing.‘A passionate history buff and a skilled raconteur . . . it’s a fine ride’ – Sunday Times‘A fabulous collection’ – Observer

Jonathan Raban's enthralling journey into the history of the Great Plains of Montana – the least populated, most uncharted region of the United States – to uncover the heart and soul of the country.Bringing to life the extraordinary landscape of the prairie and the homesteaders whose dreams foundered there, and reaching through history to the present day, Bad Land uncovers the dangerous legacy of American innocence gone sour. Reissued with a new introduction from Jane Smiley, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Thousand Acres, this is Jonathan Raban at his finest.'Bad Land should be recognized as a blazing classic' – Sunday Telegraph

'His erudition is enorous, his prose as beautiful and clear as the blue ocean on a crisp morning . . . Passage to Juneau is a wonderfully fluid read' – Sunday Times Passage to Juneau is an account of Raban's voyage from Seattle to the Alaskan capital by boat, and the devastating news that awaits him when he returns to dry land. In Raban's capable hands, the passage from Seattle to Alaska is less a journey than a backdrop for musings on history, art, myth, and philosophy.Reissued with a new introduction from Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland: A Deep Time Journey, this is extraordinary travel writing, defying at every turns the constrains of genre.'Raban at his best' – Ian McEwan

Longlisted for the 2003 Man Booker PrizeAt the turn of the millennium, two immigrants are drawn to the United States by their own versions of the American Dream.For Tom Janeway – a Hungarian-born English intellectual most at home with his books – it’s the family he thought he’d never have. For Chick – an illegal alien newly escaped from a cargo container – it’s the land of plenty he imagined back in China.But as the stock market hits a new high, anti-globalist riots break out in the streets, a terrorist is arrested and a child disappears, the two men’s dreams collide in a way neither could have anticipated. Unjustly accused of a horrific crime, estranged from his wife and his beloved young son, Tom’s life is rapidly unravelling. Chick, meanwhile, has a burgeoning business by day but no safe place to lay his bed at night. For both, the New World proves surprisingly full of old ways.Moving, funny and hugely entertaining, Jonathan Raban’s Waxwings brilliantly captures the landscape and life of contemporary America.Part of the Picador Collection, a series celebrating fifty years of Picador books and showcasing the best of modern literature.

What does America’s ‘war on terror’ and new era of religious and patriotic intensity look like to an Englishman living in Seattle?

Jonathan Raban's Soft City is a compelling exploration of urban life: a classic in the literature of the city. First published in the 1970s, it is now more relevant to today’s overcrowded planet than ever.With an introduction by Iain Sinclair.In the city we can live deliberately: inventing and renewing ourselves, carving out journeys, creating private spaces. But in the city we are also afraid of being alone, clinging to the structures of daily life to ward off the chaos around us.How is it that the noisy, jostling, overwhelming metropolis leaves us at once so energized and so fragile? In Soft City, Jonathan Raban, one of our most acclaimed novelists and travel writers seeks to find out.'A psychological handbook for urban survival' – Sunday Telegraph

'A beautiful, compelling memoir. ... Father and Son is an exquisite, sometimes lunatic tension between powerful emotions and carnage on one side, and on the other, the conventional codes of what must remain unsaid. This, Raban's final work, is a gorgeous achievement" – Ian McEwanOn 11 June 2011, three days short of his sixty-ninth birthday, Jonathan Raban suffered a stroke which left him unable to use the right side of his body, wheelchair-bound in a rehab facility and endlessly frustrated by his newfound physical limitations. As he resisted the overbearing ministrations of the nurses helping him along the road to recovery, Raban began to reflect not only on the measure of his own life but the extraordinary story of his parents’ early marriage, conducted for three years by letter while his father fought in the Second World War.Jonathan Raban engages profoundly and honestly with the biggest questions at the heart of what it means to be alive, laying bare the human capacity to adapt to trauma, as well as the warmth, strength, and humour that persist despite it. The result is Father and Son, a tremendous story of resilience in the face of loss.

'Jonathan Raban is one of the world's greatest living travel writers.' William Dalrymple'The best book of travel ever written by an Englishman about the United States' Jan Morris, IndependentNavigating the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to New Orleans, Raban opens himself to experience the river in all her turbulent and unpredictable old glory. Going wherever the current takes him, he joins a coon-hunt in Savana, falls for a girl in St Louis, worships with black Baptists in Memphis, hangs out with the housewives of Pemiscot and the hog-king of Dubuque. Through tears of laughter, we are led into the heartland of America with its hunger and hospitality, its inventive energy and its charming lethargy and come to know something of its soul.The journey is as much the story of Raban as it is of the Mississippi. Navigating the dangerous, ever-changing waters in an unsuitably fragile aluminium skiff, he immerses himself with an irresistible emotional intensity as he tries to give shape to the river and the story finding himself by turns vulnerable, curious, angry and, like all of us, sometimes foolishly in love.

'Jonathan Raban is simply one of the great writers of nonfiction at work today. I hold his work in awe.' Robert Macfarlane'Unfailingly witty and entertaining.' Salman RushdieFollowing in the footsteps of countless emigrants, Jonathan Raban takes ship for New York from Liverpool, to explore how succeeding generations of newcomers have fared in America. He finds a country of massive contrasts, between the Street People and the Air People in New York, between small town and big city, between thrusting immigrants and down-at-heel native Americans.Having outgrown his minute rented New York apartment, he heads for Guntersville, Alabama, where he settles for a few months as a good ol' boy in a cabin on the lake with a 'rented' elderly lab. From there he flies to the promise of Seattle, discovering its thrusting but alienated Asian community and thence to the watery lowlife of Key West. The result is a breathtaking observation of the States a travelogue, a social history and a love letter in one.

'A valuable book and a necessary one. One of the funniest and cleverest voyages on record.' Christopher Hitchens, New Statesman'The finest writer afloat since Conrad.' Geoffrey Moorhouse, The Guardian'Unfailingly witty and entertaining.' Salman RushdieCoasting round Britain single-handed in an antique two-masted sailing boat, Jonathan Raban conducts a masterly exploration of England and the English at the time of Margaret Thatcher and the Falklands War. He moves seamlessly between awkward memories of childhood as the son of a vicar, a vivid chronicle of the shape-shifting sea and incisive descriptions of the people and communities he encounters. As he faces his terror of racing water, eddies, offshore sandbars and ferries on a collision course, so he navigates the complex and turbulent waters of his own middle age. Coasting is a fearless attempt to discover the meaning of belonging and of his English homeland.

'Of all his generation's travellers, Jonathan Raban is the most sophisticated, writing with a subtle and imaginative brilliance.' Colin Thubron'One of the most humane and visionary of all travel writers.' Jeremy SealInto Jonathan Raban's familiar Earls Court neighbourhood after the 1970s oil boom came new visitors from the Arab world, dressed in floor-length robes and yashmaks. A people apart, little known, Raban wanted to get behind the myth and the rumour to discover the reality of their lives and world. His journey took him through Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Yemen, Egypt and Jordan. What he discovered was a far cry from the camel, tent and sand dune archetypes of early European explorers. Oil wealth had seeped into almost every corner, and Bedouin encampments had been replaced by cosmopolitan boomtowns, camels by Range Rovers. The sons of Bedouin nomads were now studying medicine in Europe and engineering in New York. Yet in this fast-moving world, old certainties remained and cultural innovation lagged miles behind economic change.Raban's gift for friendship introduces us to a series of memorable individuals rich and poor set against the feel, the smells, the sounds and the nuances of Arabia.

'Jonathan Raban is the only person I listen to in matters of travel and books and writing in general. Reading him, talking to him as I have over fifty years, he has made my work better and me happier.' Paul Theroux'For Love and Money ... is as good a book as there is about the writing life. Delighted that it will be safeguarded in print by Eland.' Tim HanniganThis collection of writing undertaken for love and money is about books and travel, and makes for an engrossing and candid exploration of what it means to live from writing. Jonathan Raban weighs up the advantages of maintaining an independent spirit against problems of insolvency and self-worth, confesses to travel as an escape from the blank page, ponders the true art of the book review, admires the role of the literary editor and remembers with affection and hilarity events from his eccentric life at the heart of literary London. Reading it is like embarking on a humane, rigorous and witty conversation.