Review | Historian William Dalrymple leads tributes to his translator Bruce Wannell – explorer, linguist and adventurer

Written by siblings, colleagues, neighbours and fellow travellers, William Dalrymple among them, this collection remembers the life and times of an extraordinary man and scholar

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Writer, linguist, lecturer and passionate traveller Bruce Wannell (right) in Afghanistan. Photo: Bruce Wannell

Ed Peters

Published: 5:15pm, 1 Nov 2020Updated: 11:57am, 2 Nov 2020

Tales from the Life of Bruce Wannell edited by Barnaby Rogerson and Rose Baring, Sickle Moon

William Dalrymple, who is best known for writing historical books about India, was one of myriad admirers of the late Bruce Wannell, who was – to list just some of his accomplishments – a cosmopolitan polyglot explorer, Persian scholar, and gifted pianist. Wannell roamed across the Middle East and Indian subcontinent with the same passion and fascination as Ibn Battuta or Wilfred Thesiger, the tail end of a breed of cultured gentleman adventurers.

In Tales from the Life of Bruce Wannell – a Festschrift compiled by siblings, colleagues, neighbours and fellow travellers – Dalrymple relates his long and occasionally ruffled association with the man who was his translator, “probably my best friend in the world” and frequent long-term houseguest.

“He transformed the books I wrote, which would have been completely different without him,” writes Dalrymple, who will be speaking at the Hong Kong International Literary Festival on November 7 about his latest work, The Anarchy.

“It was not just translation – Bruce’s knowledge of the most arcane corners of the Muslim world was unparalleled and a single Persian word could lead him to write a footnote that would make far-reaching connections.”