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Lisa St Aubin de Terán

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Lisa St Aubin de Terán
Lisa Saint Aubin de Terán, Haarlem 1999
Saint Aubin de Terán in Haarlem, 1999
BornLisa Rynveld
(1953-10-02) October 2, 1953 (age 71)
NationalityBritish
EducationJames Allen's Girls' School
GenreNovels,
Autobiographical fiction
Notable worksKeepers of the House
The Slow Train to Milan
Notable awardsSomerset Maugham Award
John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
SpouseJaime Terán
George MacBeth
Robbie Duff Scott
ChildrenIseult (with Jaime Terán)
Alexander (with George MacBeth)
Florence (with Robbie Duff Scott)
RelativesJan Carew (father)
Website
www.lisastaubindeteran.com

Lisa St Aubin de Terán (born 2 October 1953) is an English novelist, writer of autobiographical fictions, and memoirist. Her father was the Guyanese writer and academic Jan Carew.[1]

Life and career

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Lisa St Aubin de Terán was born in 1953 to Joan Mary Murray (née St Aubin) and Jan Rynveld Carew[2] and was brought up in Clapham in South London. She attended James Allen's Girls' School. Her memoir Hacienda (1998) describes how she fell into a whirlwind first marriage at the age of 16 to an exiled Venezuelan aristocrat and bank robber, Jaime Terán,[3][4] and lived for seven years at a remote farm in the Andean region of Venezuela.[5] She fled both the marriage and Venezuela when he suggested that she and their infant daughter should join him in a suicide pact.

After returning to Britain, she married her second husband, the Scottish poet and novelist George MacBeth in 1982. It was also in that year she published her first novel, Keepers of the House, winning her the Somerset Maugham Award and a place on Granta's list of "Best of Young British Novelists" (1983, issue #7). The Slow Train to Milan, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, followed in 1983. In the same year, she moved to Wiggenhall St. Mary Magdalen in Norfolk. After her second marriage broke down, she left to live in Italy.[6]

Her third husband was the painter Robbie Duff Scott, whom she had first met when George MacBeth asked him to paint a portrait of her. After marrying in 1989, she and Duff Scott moved to Umbria, her life there being described in Venice: The Four Seasons (1992) and A Valley in Italy (1994).

In 1994, she presented "Santos to Santa Cruz", an episode of the BBC television series Great Railway Journeys, about travelling from Brazil to Bolivia,[7] and wrote an accompanying article for The Times.[8] Later in 1998, she visited Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore for an episode of the BBC Radio 4 documentary The Off Season.[9]

In 2001, Duff Scott and de Terán separated and by 2003 de Terán had moved to Amsterdam and set up her own film production company called Radiant Pictures, through which she met her new partner, Dutch cameraman, Mees van Deth.[10] A year later, the couple moved to in Mossuril, Nampula Province, Mozambique.[11][12]

Lisa St Aubin de Terán has three children, including by her first husband a daughter, Iseult Teran, who is also a novelist.

The Terán Foundation

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In 2004, Lisa St Aubin de Terán established The Terán Foundation to help poor villages in northern Mozambique.[13] She writes about this phase of her life in Mozambique Mysteries (2007).[14] The Terán Foundation's first project, the College of Tourism and Agriculture (CTCA) in Cabaceira Grande, operated between 2004 and 2010, before it was sold back to the government. A second restaurant and guest house, Sunset Boulevard, functions on a non-profit basis as a training facility in Mossuril. The third building project, The Leopard Spot, was earmarked for construction in Milange, on the border with Malawi.

Awards

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Year Work Award Result Ref.
1982 Keepers of the House Somerset Maugham Award Won [15]
1983 Poetry Eric Gregory Award Won [citation needed]
1983 The Slow Train to Milan John Llewellyn Rhys Prize Won [16]

Bibliography

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In addition to her books, Lisa St Aubin de Terán has written, primarily as a travel journalist, for The Observer, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Independent, The New York Times, The Mail on Sunday, New Statesman, Vanity Fair, Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan among other publications.

Books

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Year Title Publisher Genre Notes
1980 The Streak Martin Booth Poem Limited edition of 125 copies. (6 pp.)
1982 Keepers of the House Jonathan Cape / Harper and Row Novel Published in the US with the title The Long Way Home). Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award
1983 The Slow Train to Milan Jonathan Cape Novel Winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Reviewed in The Sunday Times[17]
1984 The Tiger Jonathan Cape Novel Reviewed in The Times[18] and The Sunday Times[19]
1985 The High Place Jonathan Cape Poetry
1986 "I hate the cinema" The Irish Times Short story 11 August 1986: p. 13
1986 The Bay of Silence Jonathan Cape Novel
1987 Black Idol Jonathan Cape Novel Reviewed in The Independent[20]
1989 The Marble Mountain and other stories Jonathan Cape Short stories Reviewed in The Sunday Telegraph[21]
1989 Off the Rails: Memoirs of a Train Addict Bloomsbury Memoir Reviewed in The Sunday Times,[22] The Telegraph[23] and The Independent[24]
1989 Landscape in Italy Pavilion Pictorial Photographs by John Ferro Sims
1989 Indiscreet Journeys: Stories of Women on the Road Virago Press Anthology Editor
1990 Joanna Virago Press Novel Reviewed in The Times,[25] The Sunday Times,[26] The Daily Telegraph,[27] The Independent[28] and The Independent on Sunday[29]
1991 Venice: The Four Seasons Pavilion Travelogue Photographs by Mick Lindberg
1992 Nocturne Hamish Hamilton Novel Reviewed in The Sunday Times[30]
1994 A Valley in Italy: Confessions of a House Addict Hamish Hamilton / HarperCollins Memoir Published in the US as A Valley in Italy: The Many Seasons of a Villa in Umbria. Reviewed in The Independent on Sunday[31]
1997 The Hacienda: My Venezuelan Years Virago Press Memoir Reviewed in The Daily Telegraph[32] and The Independent[33]
1997 The Palace Macmillan Novel Reviewed in The Sunday Times[34] and The Independent[35]
1998 Virago Book of Wanderlust and Dreams Virago Press Anthology Editor
1999 Southpaw Virago Press Short stories
2000 Elements of Italy Virago Press Anthology Editor
2002 Memory Maps Virago Press Memoir Reviewed in The Times[36]
2005 Otto Virago Press / Harper Perennial Novel Published in the US with the title Swallowing Stones. Reviewed in The Times,[37] The Irish Times,[4] The Guardian[38] and The Independent[39]
2007 Mozambique Mysteries Virago Press Memoir Reviewed in The Independent[40]

Selected essays

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Year Title Publisher Notes
1985 "Hall of mirrors" The Guardian 17 October 1985: p. 27 (book review)
1986 "Leftover passion" New Statesman 12 December 1986: p. 29–30 (book review)
1988 "My Australia" The Independent 19 November 1988: pp. 76–82 (illustrated by Madeleine Thompson)
1989 "Home on the Rio della Guerra" The Sunday Times 22 January 1989: p. 7 (s5)
1992 "Ranks of Tuscany" The Guardian 21 June 1992: p. 24 (book reviews)
1992 "A Twitch of Curtains in Tuscany" The Guardian 4 June 1992: p. 27 (book reviews)
1993 "A rich sauce of eccentricity" The Sunday Times 28 February 1993: p. VII. (restaurant review)
1994 "Back Tracking" The Times 5 February 1994: p. 35(s2). (accompaniment to Great Railway Journeys)
1994 "Jessie Kesson" The Independent 28 September 1994: p. 12. (obituary)
1996 "Introduction" Virago Press Introduction to Pirates at Play by Violet Trefusis
1997 "My husband, the lost man" The Daily Telegraph 17 May 1997: pp. 1–2
1997 "The trip of the iceberg" The Independent 7 June 1997: p. 6. (book review)
1998 "My Hols" The Sunday Times 31 May 1998: p. 18(s4)
1999 "Sweet life on sugar island: A place in the sun" The Mail on Sunday 21 March 1999: p. 55
1999 "Feasts and fantasies from East to West" The Sunday Telegraph 2 May 1999: p. 24
1999 "Where there's a villa, there's a way" The New York Times 7 November 1999: pp. 95 & 104 (magazine)
2000 "Checkered past" The New York Times Fall 2000: pp. 78–84 (magazine)
2000 "The house of jasmine" The Guardian 7 August 2000: p. B6
2002 "Grand tours: Tales from Thailand's riverbanks" The Independent 14 July 2002: p. 24 (Foreign Edition)
2005 "Heroes & Villains: Graça Machel" The Independent 1 January 2005: p. 46
2005 "My first husband, the bank robber" The Times 9 February 2005: p. 11(s)
2005 "Palladian glory: it's the passion that moves me" The Sunday Times 27 February 2005: pp. 10–11
2005 "You can't dodge the redraft" The Guardian 23 April 2005: p. 34
2005 "Journey to the interior" The Guardian 9 July 2005: p. 36
2006 "Foreword" Virago Press Foreword to Rome: A cultural and literary companion by J. Boardman
2007–2013 Onze Wereld Monthly column in Dutch magazine[41]

Further reading

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References

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  1. ^ Obituary: Jan R. Carew, The Courier-Journal, 9 December 2012.
  2. ^ Margaret Busby, "Jan Carew obituary", The Guardian, 21 December 2012.
  3. ^ "Lisa St Aubin de Teran - Literature". literature.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  4. ^ a b East, Louise (12 February 2005). "Living history". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  5. ^ Michael Upchurch, "The Robber's Bride: A new memoir by Lisa St. Aubin de Terán tells how a young person can get in a terrible jam", The New York Times, 12 April 1998.
  6. ^ Wiggenhall St. Mary Magdalen, Literary Norfolk.
  7. ^ "BBC Programme Index". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 10 February 1994. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  8. ^ St Aubin de Teran, Lisa (5 February 1994). "Back Tracking". The Times. pp. 35(s2). Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  9. ^ "BBC Programme Index". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 21 February 1998. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  10. ^ a b Davies, Henri Llewelyn (18 October 2003). "Story of a life from both sides". The Times. pp. 8(s3). Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  11. ^ "Quick bio". Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  12. ^ "Lisa St Aubin de Teran". Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  13. ^ "About Us", Teran Foundation.
  14. ^ Lesley McDowell, "Mozambique Mysteries, By Lisa St Aubin de Teran" (review), The Independent, 28 November 2010.
  15. ^ "Society of Authors' Awards | The Society of Authors". 27 August 2021. Archived from the original on 27 August 2021. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  16. ^ "John Llewellyn Rhys Prize". 4 December 2005. Archived from the original on 4 December 2005. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  17. ^ Shrimpton, Nicholas (6 March 1983). "From tourism to terrorism". The Sunday Times. p. 45. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  18. ^ Howard, Philip (13 September 1984). "The Tiger". The Times. p. 13. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  19. ^ Kemp, Peter (16 September 1984). "The tale of a gaucho Gatsby". The Sunday Times. p. 43. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  20. ^ Shakespeare, Nicholas (5 November 1987). "A good hotel guide". The Independent. p. 9. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  21. ^ Ingoldby, Grace (22 January 1989). "How to ditch your husband at the railway station". The Sunday Telegraph. p. 19. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  22. ^ Quinn, Anthony (5 February 1989). "One-track mind". The Sunday Times. pp. 10[s6]. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  23. ^ Kennedy, Ludovic (11 February 1989). "Enigmatic clackety-clack". The Telegraph. pp. XIV. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  24. ^ Keates, Jonathan (30 January 1989). "Slow trains drifter". The Independent. p. 16. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  25. ^ Glendinning, Victoria (24 May 1990). "Over-top game of unhappy families". The Times. p. 17. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  26. ^ Jones, Nicolette (27 May 1990). "Too bad to be true". The Sunday Times. pp. 6[s6]. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  27. ^ Tremain, Rose (30 June 1990). "Women droolers". The Sunday Telegraph. pp. XV. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  28. ^ Gaisford, Sue (2 June 1990). "Mummified". The Independent. p. 29. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  29. ^ Dalley, Jan (20 May 1990). "Madly romancing the stone". The Independent. p. 20. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  30. ^ Coe, Jonathan (18 October 1992). "Pasta pastoral". The Sunday Times. pp. 13(s4). Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  31. ^ Rodd, Candice (1 May 1994). "Brits in palace coo". The Independent. p. 36. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  32. ^ Wheeler, Sara (28 June 1997). "Passion, madness and a South American liaison". The Telegraph. pp. A2. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  33. ^ Cooper, Artemis (31 May 1997). "Trouble at the mill". The Independent. p. 7. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  34. ^ Leon, Donna (6 July 1997). "Venice in peril". The Sunday Times. pp. 8(s6). Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  35. ^ Dickson, Jane (21 June 1997). "Supping on songbirds at the palace". The Independent. p. 8. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  36. ^ Blake, Fanny (18 May 2002). "Shadows in the mind". The Times. pp. 18(s3). Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  37. ^ Blacker, Terence (6 February 2005). "Too much reality". The Times. pp. 53(s10). Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  38. ^ Feinstein, Adam (19 February 2005). "Review: Otto by Lisa St Aubin de Terán". the Guardian. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  39. ^ "Lisa St Aubin de Terán: Stronger than fiction". The Independent. 18 February 2005. Archived from the original on 14 June 2022. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  40. ^ Hill, Justin (2 November 2007). "Touched by the African sun". The Independent. p. 22. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  41. ^ "Onze Wereld: Columns". 27 January 2009. Archived from the original on 27 January 2009. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  42. ^ Groom, Avril (9 November 1984). "The traveller's tale that reads like a novel". The Daily Telegraph. p. 17. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  43. ^ Allott, Serena (7 November 1987). "Old fashion whirl". The Daily Telegraph. pp. III. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  44. ^ Shulman, Alexandra (27 May 1990). "Expunging the scars of maternal graffiti". The Sunday Telegraph. pp. XI. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  45. ^ Luskacôvá, Markéta (15 July 1990). "Training for Life". The Sunday Times. pp. 13(s7). Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  46. ^ Yusuf, Nilgin (27 February 1992). "Treasures in tattered trunks". The Daily Telegraph. p. 15. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  47. ^ Wilson, Catherine (30 September 1993). "Lisa St Aubin de Teran". The Guardian. pp. A15. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  48. ^ Gillilan, Lesley (25 October 1997). "Confessions of a house addict". The Daily Telegraph. p. 12. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  49. ^ Guthrie, Mark (21 July 2002). "Best of Times Worst of Times". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
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