Bruce Chatwin is an original: laconic, wistful, sweet and sour, detached and sympathetic, with a sharp eye for the curious. [In the travel book In Patagonia, he] writes very well indeed in a clear, streamlined, educated cis-Atlantic style that reminds you a little of Evelyn Waugh. He has a special gift for catching the genius loci of this strange springboard into the Void. (p. 550)

Maurice Richardson, "Walkabout," in New Statesman (© 1977 The Statesman & Nation Publishing Co. Ltd.), Vol. 94, No. 2431, October 21, 1977, pp. 550-51.∗