Michael De Larrabeiti

Michael de Larrabeiti was one of five children, the son of an absentee Basque father and a South London mother. He was brought up on her home turf, in Battersea, and left school at sixteen to try his hand at a variety of different jobs. His love of travel led him to find work abroad as a travel guide in France and Morocco. He also herded sheep in the Alps and taught English in Casablanca. He found employment as a Cameraman on documentaries and, in 1961, de Larrabeiti enlisted as official photographer on Oxford University’s Marco Polo Expedition. This involved travelling for four months on a motorcycle, passing through Afghanistan and India. He later read French and English at Trinity College Dublin, won a scholarship to the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, and began a DPhil at Oxford University which he later left to take up full-time writing. He settled in Oxfordshire with his wife Celia and their three children. The Borrible trilogy, subversive urban adventures, caused a sensation when first published and maintain a powerful relevance today. Michael de Larrabeiti passed away in 2008.