Glazebrook, Philip 1937–2007

(Philip Kirkland Glazebrook)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born April 3, 1937, in London, England; died July 2, 2007. Travel writer, novelist, and critic. Glazebrook traveled widely, but his interests focused on Central and South Asia. His travel writings covered ground that was new to many English-speaking readers, despite the opinion of some critics that his topics evoked the flavors and scents of times gone by. He described his own writing as a quest for the sources of travelers' fascination with the Orient, concluding that the East seemed to inspire a nostalgia for gallantry and romance that was fast disappearing in the commercialized world of Western Europe. Glazebrook had begun his career as a novelist and continued to dabble in fiction throughout his life. His travel writing resonated with the voice of the novelist, it is said, enhancing the accounts of his journeys. His travel books include Byzantine Honeymoon: A Tale of the Bosphorus (1979), Journey to Kars: A Modern Traveler to Ottoman Lands (1984), Journey to Khiva: A Writer's Search for Central Asia (1994), and The Electric Rock Garden (2001), set near the India-Pakistan border in the 1970s. Glazebrook also wrote reviews for British and American newspapers and at least one screenplay. His novels include the mystery The Eye of the Beholder (1977) and two novels about a fictional nineteenth-century travel writer, Captain Vinegar.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Times (London, England), August 2, 2007, p. 55.