Alexander Frater

{{Short description|British-Australian journalist and travel writer (1937–2020)}}

{{Infobox writer

| alt = Alexander Frater

| birth_name = Alexander Russell Frater

| birth_date = {{birth date|1937|1|3|df=y}}

| birth_place = Port Vila, New Hebrides
(now Vanuatu)

| death_date = {{death date and age|2020|1|1|1937|1|3|df=y}}

| nationality = British and Australian

| citizenship =

| education = Scotch College, Melbourne

| alma_mater = University of Melbourne

| notableworks =

| occupation = Writer and journalist

| spouse =

| partner = Marlis (d. 2011)

| children = 2

| relations =

| awards = Numerous, listed below left

}}

Alexander Russell Frater (3 January 1937 – 1 January 2020{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/global/commentisfree/2020/jan/05/obituary-alexander-frater-1937-2020|title=Obituary: Alexander Frater 1937-2020|last=Chesshyre|first=Robert|date=2020-01-05|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-01-10|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}) was a British travel writer and journalist.{{cite web |title=Alexander Frater |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/9254/alexander-frater |website=Penguin Random House |accessdate=16 September 2018}} Described by Miles Kington as 'the funniest man who wrote for Punch since the war', Frater is best known for his various books and for documentaries he wrote and produced for the BBC and ABC.{{cite web |title=Alexander Frater author biography |url=https://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm/author_number/1449/alexander-frater |website=BookBrowse |accessdate=22 June 2019 |language=en |date=30 May 2016}}{{cite web |title=Alexander Frater |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2600123/ |website=IMDb |accessdate=22 June 2019}}

Early life

Frater was born in a small mission hospital in Port Vila, Vanuatu, in the middle of a monsoon.{{cite news |last1=Datta |first1=Sudipta |title=Under the grey skies |url=https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/under-the-grey-skies/article24547372.ece |newspaper=The Hindu |accessdate=16 September 2018 |language=en-IN |date=30 July 2018}} His grandfather and his father were Scottish Presbyterian missionaries in Vanuatu. His grandfather Maurice was based on the island of Paama, which had previously been hostile to all outsiders, from 1900 to 1939. His father Alec, who became a doctor, established a hospital on the island of Iririki, offshore from Parliament House in Port Vila, training local staff in the treatment of tropical diseases. His mother established and ran two schools in Vanuatu.Frater, A.R. 2004. "Tales from the Torrid Zone". Vintage Books. His father would later teach him how to observe and analyse weather.Datta, 2018 Frater's family employed the services of a native gardener, Moses, who believed the young Alexander was the reincarnation of a rain God.{{cite book |last1=Frater |first1=Alexander |title=Chasing the Monsoon |date=1990 |publisher=Penguin |pages=1–9 |chapter-url=https://dl140.zlibcdn.com/download/book/2778983?token=36a5b2dec6b0df8ea15a3c85874174ba |chapter=Prologue}} A few weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the family evacuated to Australia to escape the coming war. In 1946 they moved to Suva, Fiji, where Frater Sr. became professor at the Central Medical School.{{cite book |last1=Frater |first1=Alexander |title=Tales from the Torrid Zone: Travels in the Deep Tropics |date=2011 |publisher=Pan Macmillan |location=London |isbn=9780330542081 }}

After primary school Frater was sent back to Australia to attend Scotch College in Melbourne, where he edited the school magazine and, as head boy, succeeded in his campaign to abolish corporal punishment.{{cite news |title=Alex Frater obituary |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/alex-frater-obituary-2zhpxhtv2 |access-date=8 April 2020 |work=The Times |date=16 March 2020 |language=en}} Initially studying law at the University of Melbourne, he left before graduating to move to England, and studied English at Durham University (Hatfield College). From 1960 to 1962 Frater competed for Durham University Boat Club.{{cite book |last1=Moyes |first1=Arthur |title=Be The Best You Can Be: A History of Sport at Hatfield College, Durham University |date=2007 |publisher=Hatfield Trust |page=80}} He also represented the Hatfield College Boat Club in intercollegiate events, and served as Captain of the Hatfield College Swimming Club in 1961.Ibid , p. 60Ibid , p. 264

He stumbled into a journalism career by accident. Having submitted pieces to Punch while still an undergraduate at Durham he was, against all expectations, eventually offered a staff job, which prompted him to once again leave university without graduating. Frater would later enroll at Perugia University to briefly study Italian, before again dropping out, meaning that he had attended three universities without graduating from any of them – an 'unusual feat' of which he was proud.{{cite news |author1=Telegraph Obituaries |title=Alexander Frater, award-winning author whose book Chasing the Monsoon became a classic work of Anglo-Indian literature |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2020/03/27/alexander-frater-award-winning-author-whose-book-chasing-monsoon/ |accessdate=9 April 2020 |work=The Telegraph |date=27 March 2020}} While in Italy he met his wife, Marlis Pfund, who worked as an air hostess for Swissair.

Career

=Punch=

Before making his living through writing Frater had romanticised about joining the Colonial Service, but the process of decolonization, culminating in the end of the Colonial Office altogether, ended this notion.{{cite book |last1=Frater |first1=Alexander |title=Tales from the Torrid Zone: Travels in the Deep Tropics |date=2011 |publisher=Pan Macmillan |location=London |isbn=9780330542081|pages=82–83 }} Frater's tenure at Punch saw him develop a friendly rivalry with a young Alan Coren, later to find fame as a humourist and participant on The News Quiz. But it also coincided with the magazine's period of starkest decline, which he attributed to both the Satire boom (which left Punch looking old-fashioned) and the decline of the British Empire – the magazine being popular in the Colonies.

=Interim=

Looking to move on, he soon became a contracted writer for The New Yorker.{{cite book |last1=Frater |first1=Alexander |title=Chasing the Monsoon: A Modern Pilgrimage Through India |date=2005 |publisher=Pan Macmillan |location=London |isbn=9780330433136 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/00book1139182264 }} During his time writing for The New Yorker he produced a number of stories about an idyllic, imaginary Pacific island he called Tofua. Later he was informed by a fact-checker that such an island really existed in Tonga, which went on to form the basis for a book published many years later, Tales from the Torrid Zone.{{cite news |last1=Benfey |first1=Christopher |title=Tales From the Torrid Zone - Alexander Frater |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/books/review/Benfey.t.html |newspaper=The New York Times|accessdate=16 September 2018 |language=en|date=25 March 2007 }} Following his time with The New Yorker he spent one year as a staff writer for The Daily Telegraph from 1966 to 1967, working on its supplemental magazine. John Anstey, the magazine's editor, did not like 'Russ', the name which Frater was then known by and demanded he use his first name for his byline (his family had a tradition of calling members by their second names). Friends from earlier periods would continue to call him 'Russ', as did those he met after leaving Fleet Street.

=''The Observer''=

Frater moved to The Observer in 1967, where he would spend more than two decades, become travel editor and amass a series of awards. He was twice commended in the British Press Awards, and in 1990 won Travel Writer of the Year.{{cite web |title=Frater, Alexander 1937 - |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-3070300058/frater-alexander-1937.html |website=Encyclopedia |accessdate=16 September 2018 |language=en}}

Frater took a short break from journalism to write Beyond the Blue Horizon (1984). He attempted to recreate the journey made in the Imperial Airways 'Eastbound Empire' service - the world's longest and most adventurous scheduled air route.{{cite web |title=Beyond The Blue Horizon |url=https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/alexander-frater/beyond-the-blue-horizon |website=Pan Macmillan |accessdate=16 September 2018}} Chasing the Monsoon (1990) sees Frater follow the Monsoon in India. As a child his curiosity about India, and particularly its monsoon season, was sparked by his father - who often told stories about the country.{{cite web |last1=Advani |first1=Rukun |title=Book review: Alexender Frater's 'Chasing The Monsoon' |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/society-the-arts/books/story/19901130-book-review-alexender-frater-chasing-monsoon-813324-1990-11-30 |website=India Today |accessdate=16 September 2018 |language=en}} In the course of this journey following the Monsoon he visited the city of Deeg, having driven for five-hours from New Delhi, but was disappointed to find the city largely lifeless and the watercourses all empty.{{cite journal |last1=Herbert |first1=Eugenia |title='This Fairy Creation': The Garden Palace of Dig in Rajasthan, India |journal=Garden History |date=2014 |volume=42 |issue=2 |page=212 |issn=0307-1243|jstor=24636211 }} Chasing the Monsoon would turn out to be Frater's most popular book, particularly in India, where, by 2016, it still sold hundreds of copies a month.{{cite web |last1=Fowler |first1=Steven J. |title=Alexander Frater 1937 - 2020 |url=https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/alexanderfrater/ |website=3:AM Magazine |accessdate=7 January 2020 |date=6 January 2020}}

Frater visited North Korea in the 1990s under the guise of being a teacher – journalists not being allowed in. He stayed at the Koryo Hotel, where he was one of only 20 guests despite the building having 45 floors.{{cite web |last1=Bywater |first1=Michael |last2=Frater |first2=Alexander |title=Has the romance gone out of travel? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/jan/14/escape |website=The Observer |accessdate=30 June 2019 |date=14 January 2007}}

In 2008 he published his final book, The Balloon Factory. It focuses on the pioneers of aviation-based at The Balloon Factory in Farnborough.{{cite news |last1=MacLean |first1=Rory |title=The Balloon Factory: The Story of the Men Who Built Britain's First Flying Machines by Alexander Frater |url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/advice/the-balloon-factory-the-story-of-the-men-who-built-britains-first-flying-machines-by-alexander-frater-06gqvrhw3nv |newspaper=The Sunday Times |access-date=16 September 2018 |language=en |date=20 July 2008}}

Television

Frater made several television documentaries.

A BBC and ABC Discovery Series documentary recreating Africa's flying boat journeys from Cairo to Mozambique was filmed in difficult conditions in 1989 aboard a Catalina flying boat. The programme aired in 1990 entitled The Last African Flying Boat and was awarded a BAFTA for Best Documentary in 1991.{{cite news |last1=Crook |first1=John |title='Last Flying Boat' takes risky trip across Africa |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2519&dat=19930711&id=tRpgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yW0NAAAAIBAJ&pg=2496,2936020 |accessdate=16 September 2018 |work=The Observer |date=11 July 1993}}

Monsoon (BBC), about India's monsoonal rainfall event, aired in 1991.

In the Footsteps of Buddha (BBC), 1993.

Personal

Frater had 2 children: Tania, a university administrator, and John, a medical professor at the University of Oxford. He lived in Richmond upon Thames, close to Heathrow Airport, but unlike many residents did not mind being under 'the glide path' and was curious about the details of the aircraft passing above his flat.

In a 2004 interview with The Independent Frater named his worst travel experience as being arrested in Kupang, West Timor by the Indonesian Military and spending three days in prison, in a cell neighbouring a pit with two Komodo dragons.{{cite web |last1=Lam |first1=Sophie |title=My Life in Travel: Alexander Frater |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/my-life-in-travel-alexander-frater-556477.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190630161000/https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/my-life-in-travel-alexander-frater-556477.html |archive-date=2019-06-30 |url-access=limited |url-status=live |website=The Independent |accessdate=30 June 2019 |language=en |date=14 August 2004}} After release he was put under house arrest and then thrown off the island.

Death

Frater died on 1 January 2020 at the age of 82.

Books

Frater, A.R. 2008. The Balloon Factory: The Story of the Men Who Built Britain's First Flying Machines. Picador.
Frater, A.R. 2004. Tales from the Torrid Zone. Vintage Books/Picador.
Frater, A.R. 1990. Chasing the Monsoon: a Modern Pilgrimage Through India. Picador.
Frater, A.R. 1986. Beyond the Blue Horizon: On the track of Imperial Airways. Heinemann.
Frater, A.R. (ed.) 1984. Great Rivers of the World. Hodder & Stoughton.
Frater, A.R. 1983 Stopping-Train Britain. Hodder & Stoughton.

Awards

BAFTA Award for Best Single Documentary (The Last African Flying Boat)
British Press Travel Award commendations – 1982 and 1989
British Press Award Travel Writer of the Year – 1990, 1991 and 1992
Best Radio Feature Travelex Travel Writers' Awards – 2000
Overall winner Travelex Travel Writers' Awards – 2000
Shortlisted Thomas Cook Travel Book of the Year Award, for Monsoon (Br Book Award, McVitie's Prize)