Robert Macfarlane chooses BC's In Patagonia as his 'Book of a Lifetime' over at The Independent. As always, he offers a clear-headed perspective on Chatwin's work:

'What I learnt above all from Chatwin is that travel writing – unpropelled by any narrative except the journey itself – must find alternative momentums. He taught me that pattern can substitute powerfully for plot: that apparently unconnected details and images, sprinkled as iron filings through a book, might be magnetised into subtle arrangement.'

Macfarlane's new book – partly inspired by Chatwin, and receiving rave reviews – is The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot.