John Keay - Life and Career

Life and Career

John Keay was born in Devon, England to parents of Scottish origin. He studied at Ampleforth College in York, before going on to read Modern History at Oxford University. Among his teachers at Oxford were the famous historian A.J.P. Taylor and the future playwright Alan Bennett. Keay was a resident of Magdalen College.

In 1965, he visited India for the first time. He went to Kashmir for a fortnight's trout-fishing, but liked it so much that he returned the following year, this time for six months. It was during his stay in Kashmir that Keay decided upon writing as a career. He joined the staff of The Economist magazine, and as their political correspondent, he returned to India several times to cover various elections and conflicts. He also started contributing stories to BBC Radio.

In 1971, he gave up his correspondent's job in order to write his first book. Into India was published in 1973. Keay followed it up with two volumes about the European exploration of the Western Himalayas in the 19th century: When Men and Mountains Meet (1977) and The Gilgit Game (1979). The two were later combined into a single-volume paperback by John Murray.

In the 1980s, he worked for BBC Radio as a writer and presenter, and made several documentary series for the Third Programme, the highbrow BBC radio channel. He also made programmes for BBC Radio 4. During this time, he wrote India Discovered, the story of how British colonialists came to find out about the great artefacts of Indian culture and architecture.