Ian Marchant, "a writer, performer, teacher, and broadcaster with a unique perspective on the lesser-known highways and byways of British life," died November 14, the Guardian reported. He was 67.
Marchant found his voice in "a hybrid style of nonfiction that combined memoir, travel writing, humor, and considered social observation" the Guardian wrote, noting that his book Parallel Lines (2003) "is a deeply researched history of Britain's railways that does not exclude a gonzo approach to the Great Little Railways of Wales," while The Longest Crawl (2006) "traces the history of Britain's relationship with alcohol from The Turk's Head in the Isles of Scilly to The Baa Bar in Shetland." Something of the Night (2012) "looks at what Britons do in the night-time," and A Hero for High Times "lives up to its extravagant subtitle": A Younger Reader's Guide to the Beats, Hippies, Freaks, Punks, Ravers, New-Age Travellers and Dog-on-a-Rope Brew Crew Crusties of the British Isles, 1956-1994.
During the 1990s, Marchant wrote a novel, In Southern Waters (1999), and for two years managed the Quinto Bookshop on Charing Cross Road in London. In 2001 he published his second novel, The Battle for Dole Acre, and the following year left London to become residential director, along with author Monique Roffey, of the Arvon writing center at Totleigh Barton in Devon.
In 2006, he settled in the Welsh border town of Presteigne and founded Radio Free Radnorshire while commuting to Birmingham City University to teach creative writing. He later was a presenter of an ITV Border documentary about the Scottish engineer Thomas Telford, followed by Fun for Some (2008), a series in which he explored "minority hobbies with unfeigned enthusiasm," the Guardian noted. Beginning in 2011, on BBC Radio 3 and 4, he hosted programs on a wide range of subjects.
During the Covid pandemic, with help from his wife, Hilary, Marchant discovered a distant ancestor of his father who had been the land-owning Sussex yeoman Thomas Marchant, author of a published diary covering the years 1714-28. Ian Marchant's final nonfiction book, One Fine Day (2023), "gives full voice to the family conversation between now and then," the Guardian noted, adding that his final novel, The Breaking Wave (2025), is about getting an '80s band back together in late middle-age.