Rory MacLean was born in Vancouver and has lived in Toronto, London, Berlin, Italy and the Hebrides. He trained as a screenwriter, worked with David Bowie and Marlene Dietrich, but during the premiere of his last feature film his mother fell asleep and his girlfriend ran off with the financier. Not surprisingly, he took a holiday. He returned with the manuscript of ‘Stalin’s Nose’ (1992), which became a UK top ten best-seller and won the Yorkshire Post’s Best First Work prize. It was chosen as a Book of the Year by the ‘Sunday Times’, the ‘Guardian’ and the ‘Independent on Sunday’. ‘The most extraordinary debut in travel writing since “In Patagonia”’ wrote William Dalrymple.
His second book ‘The Oatmeal Ark’ (1997) followed, exploring both Scotland and Canada and inspiring John Fowles to write, ‘Such a book as this rather marvellously explains why literature still lives.’ It was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary award. Then, when the opportunity arose to meet the Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, Rory travelled to Burma. ‘Under the Dragon’ (1998) went to six editions in hardback, won an Arts Council Writers’ Award and, like ‘Stalin’s Nose’, was short-listed for the Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Travel Book Prize. Fergal Keane wrote, ‘I cannot imagine a better book on the beauty and terror of Burma. Read it. Read it. Read it.’
’Next Exit Magic Kingdom’ (2000), his fourth book, followed the two million British holiday-makers who travel to Florida every year. It was chosen as a Book of the Year by Wanderlust magazine, shortlisted for the WHSmith Books Awards and read by the author on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Book of the Week’.
In his up-coming book to be published in early 2004, Rory travels to Crete to hand build – and fly once – a flying machine and to reach back into Greek mythology and the history of this exceptional island and its people.
Rory MacLean, writes Michael Thompson-Noel in the ‘Financial Times’, ‘is expanding the boundaries of travel writing by trampling the borders between fact and fiction.’ In each of his books he tells the stories of ordinary men and women, and through fictional devices enables the reader to empathise with their lives, society and times.
Rory, who has a soft spot for mermaids, now lives in Dorset with Katrin and Tess. He is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4, writing and presenting ‘Building Icarus’ (May 2002), ‘Next Exit Magic Kingdom’ (2000), ‘Out-takes: Tales from the Trim Bin’ (1999) and eight series (43 programmes) of the travel series ‘Itchy Feet’ (1993/2000). His ‘Following Durrell’ was a Radio 3 Sunday Feature in 2001.
