John Keay
John Keay (born 1941) is an English journalist and author specialising in popular histories of India and the Far East, often with a particular focus on their colonisation and exploration by Europeans.
Life and career
John Keay was born in Devon, England, to parents of Scottish origin. He studied at Ampleforth College in York before going on to read Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford. Among his teachers at Oxford were the historian A. J. P. Taylor and the future playwright Alan Bennett. In 1965 he visited India for the first time. He went to Kashmir for a fortnight's trout-fishing and liked it so much that he returned the following year, this time for six months. It was during his second stay in Kashmir that Keay decided upon writing as a career. He joined the staff of The Economist and returned to India several times as its political correspondent. He also started contributing stories to BBC Radio.
In 1971 he gave up his correspondent's job in order to write his first book, Into India, which was published in 1973. Keay followed it with two volumes about the European exploration of the Western Himalayas in the 19th century: When Men and Mountains Meet (1977) and The Gilgit Game (1979). These two books were later combined into a single-volume paperback by John Murray.
In the 1980s he worked for BBC Radio as a writer and presenter, and made several documentary series for BBC Radio 3.[1] He also made programmes for BBC Radio 4. During this time he wrote India Discovered, the story of how British colonialists came to find out about the great artefacts of Indian culture and architecture.
Historian Anna Keay is the daughter of John Keay and grand-daughter of the politician Humphrey Atkins[2] His wife, Julia Keay, née Atkins, is also a writer.[3]
Bibliography
- Into India (John Murray 1973), ISBN 0-7195-2918-2
- When Men and Mountains Meet: The Explorers of the Western Himalayas, 1820-75 (John Murray 1977), ISBN 0-7195-3334-1
- The Gilgit Game: The Explorers of the Western Himalayas, 1865-95 (John Murray 1979), ISBN 0-7195-3569-7
- India Discovered: The Achievement of the British Raj (Windward 1981), ISBN 0-7112-0047-5
- Eccentric Travellers (John Murray 1982), ISBN 0-7195-3868-8
- Highland Drove (John Murray 1984), ISBN 0-7195-4105-0
- Explorers Extraordinary (John Murray 1985), ISBN 0-7195-4249-9
- The Royal Geographical Society History of World Exploration (Hamlyn 1991), ISBN 0-600-56819-9 (ed.)
- The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company (HarperCollins 1991), ISBN 0-00-217515-0
- The Robinson Book of Exploration (Robinson 1993), ISBN 1-85487-240-0 (ed.)
- Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland (HarperCollins 1994), ISBN 0-00-255082-2 (ed. with Julia Keay)
- Indonesia: From Sabang to Merauke (Boxtree Ltd 1995), ISBN 1-85283-545-1
- Last Post: The End of Empire in the Far East (John Murray 1997), ISBN 0-7195-5346-6
- India: A History. New York, USA: Grove Press. 2000. ISBN 0-8021-3797-0.
- The Great Arc: The Dramatic Tale of How India Was Mapped and Everest Was Named (HarperCollins 2000), ISBN 0-00-257062-9
- Sowing the Wind: The Seeds of Conflict in the Middle East (John Murray 2003), ISBN 0-7195-5583-3
- The Spice Route: A History (John Murray 2005), ISBN 0-7195-6198-1
- Mad About the Mekong: Exploration and Empire in South East Asia (HarperCollins 2005), ISBN 0-00-711113-4
- China: A History (HarperCollins 2008), ISBN 978-0-00-722177-6
- The London Encyclopaedia, Ben Weinreb & Christopher Hibbert, Julia & John Keay with original photography by Matthew Weinreb, Macmillan Publishers, 3rd Revised edition 2008, ISBN 978-1-4050-4924-5
References
- ↑ "History in the making". telegraphindia.com (Calcutta, India). 2005-10-08. Retrieved 2010-02-06.
- ↑ Lister-Kaye, Hermione (13 June 2014). "Anna Keay on India, motherhood and the Duke of Monmouth". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
- ↑ Dr Anna Keay - Biography
External links
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