Jeremy Atiyah

Jeremy Francis Atiyah (30 December 1963 – 12 April 2006) was a British travel writer.

Atiyah was born in Woking, Surrey, England, to legal scholar Patrick Atiyah.^[1] From 1970 to 1973, his family lived in Canberra, Australia, before returning to the United Kingdom, eventually settling in Oxford.^[1] He was educated at Magdalen College School and later attended Trinity College, Oxford, where he studied Classics before graduating in 1985 with a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE).^[1][2]

After university, Atiyah's interest in travel led him to teach English in Barcelona. He became a polyglot and learnt Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, and Mandarin. In 1989, a journey on the Trans-Mongolian Express from China to Moscow led to a chance meeting with Xiaosong Que, a Chinese student whom he married in 1991.^[1] Atiyah's marriage to Xiaosong Que was dissolved in 2000.^[1]

Atiyah began his career in the early 1990s. He co-authored the first edition of The Rough Guide to China, published in 1995.^[3] He subsequently became a travel writer for several British national newspapers and served as the first Travel Editor for The Independent on Sunday from 1997 to 2000.^[1][3]

In 2002, Atiyah adopted a nomadic lifestyle, divesting himself of most possessions to travel and write. During this period, he researched and wrote a history of Russian America after spending a winter in Irkutsk, Siberia. In 2005, he purchased and began renovating a property in Puglia, Italy, and started a new venture designing walking tours.^[1]