15 Facts About Jonathan Raban

Jonathan Mark Hamilton Priaulx Raban was a British award-winning travel writer, playwright, critic, and novelist.

Jonathan Raban was born on 14 June 1942 in Norfolk.

Jonathan Raban was sent to boarding school at the age of five.

Jonathan Raban was educated at King's School, Worcester, where like his father he was unhappy but discovered the comforting value of literature.

Jonathan Raban went on to study English at the University of Hull, where he became friends with the poet Philip Larkin.

Jonathan Raban supported himself by teaching English and American literature.

Jonathan Raban began his career lecturing at Aberystwyth University in Wales.

Jonathan Raban then moved to the creative writing department of the University of East Anglia under Malcolm Bradbury.

In 1969 Jonathan Raban moved to London and became a freelance writer and journalist, specialising in book reviews.

Jonathan Raban followed up in 1981 with Old Glory, which recounted his journey down the Mississippi from Minneapolis to New Orleans.

Jonathan Raban married three times, first to Bridget Johnson in 1964 whom he met at university; then to Caroline Cuthbert, an art dealer, in 1985; and finally to Jean Lenihan in 1992.

In 1973, Jonathan Raban had a son, Alexander, by Amanda Reeve.

In 2011, Jonathan Raban suffered a stroke which left him in a wheelchair.

Jonathan Raban died from related complications in Seattle on 17 January 2023, at the age of 80.

Jonathan Raban received multiple awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Royal Society of Literature's Heinemann Award, the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, the PEN West Creative Nonfiction Award, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, and a 1997 Washington State Governor's Writer's Award.