Anthony Sattin is a specialist on North Africa and the Arab world and the author of several highly acclaimed books of history and travel. Giles Foden identified him as one of ten key influences on travel writing today.
He began writing fiction and was a graduate of Malcolm Bradbury’s University of East Anglia Creative Writing programme. His fiction appeared in several magazines and was published by Jonathan Cape.
His non-fiction has included a travel book, The Pharaoh’s Shadow, an account of his search for Egypt’s surviving ancient culture, and a history, The Gates of Africa, which tells of the creation of the world’s first geographical society and the search for Timbuktu. Anthony discovered and edited Florence Nightingale’s letters from Egypt, which provided the inspiration for his most recent A Winter on the Nile, an account of parallel journeys to Egypt made by Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert. He has also edited and contributed stories to many anthologies, including to the forthcoming Ox-Travels, a fund-raising collection of the best contemporary writers.
His award-winning journalism on travel and books has appeared regularly in the Sunday Times, Conde Nast Traveller and publications around the world. For 8 years, Anthony contributed a weekly book column to the Sunday Times.
A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, editorial advisor on Geographical Magazine, founder-member of Travel Intelligence and ASTENE (the Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East), Anthony has also written and presented on television and radio, including several high-profile documentaries for BBC Radio 3 and 4. Anthony is a regular speaker at literary festivals and societies and has taught place-based writing in the UK, Morocco, Kyrgyzstan and elsewhere.
Twitter: @anthonysattin
Details of this year’s festival programme can be found elsewhere on this website.
