Sprawson, Charles 1941-

PERSONAL:

Born June 12, 1941, in Karachi, Pakistan; son of Eric (a schoolmaster) and Ann Isobel (a homemaker) Sprawson; married Ann Fenton (a homemaker), September 3, 1966; children: Clare, Emma, Sophie. Ethnicity: "English." Education: Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, M.A., 1964. Politics: Conservative. Religion: Church of England. Hobbies and other interests: Swimming.

ADDRESSES:

Home—London, England.

CAREER:

Riyad University, Riyad, Saudi Arabia, lecturer, 1966-70; Frost and Reed Gallery, Bristol, England, director, 1971-79; self-employed art dealer, London, England, 1980—.

WRITINGS:

Haunts of the Black Masseur: The Swimmer as Hero (nonfiction), Pantheon Books (New York, NY), 1992.

Contributor to periodicals.

Sprawson's book has been translated into Italian and German.

ADAPTATIONS:

The book The Haunts of the Black Masseur: The Swimmer as Hero was adapted as a film, produced by Edgeland Films (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) in 2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

Charles Sprawson told CA: "I became passionate about swimming when a child in India and North Africa. In the course of writing my book I became aware that many others were similarly affected by swimming, most of them much more so than I. So I began to identify them from their characters and writings. They were usually misfits, idealists for whom water was a refuge from everyday life and swimming was a mystic, spiritual experience, an attempt in some cases to recover contact with the classical past, to get in touch again with a pagan existence. I tried to swim where they swam, particularly Byron."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

New Republic, October, 1993, James Hamilton-Paterson, review of Haunts of the Black Masseur: The Swimmer as Hero, p. 37.

Publishers Weekly, January 4, 1993, review of Haunts of the Black Masseur, p. 64.