English writer and painter, admired for his vivid prose and precise descriptions.
Welch spent his childhood in China — he recorded this in his fictionalised autobiography of his early years, Maiden Voyage (1943). With the help and patronage of Edith Sitwell and John Lehmann this book became a small but lasting success and made for him a distinct and individual reputation. It was followed by the novel In Youth is Pleasure (1944), a study of adolescence, and by Brave and Cruel (1949). An unfinished autobiographical novel A Voice through a Cloud was published posthumously in 1950.
Welch did not set out to be a writer. He studied art at Goldsmiths’ in London with the intention of becoming a painter. At the age of twenty, he was hit by a car while cycling in Surrey and suffered a fractured spine. Although he was not paralysed, he suffered severe pain and complications, including spinal tuberculosis. He continued occasionally to paint; there is a fine self-portrait (in the National Portrait Gallery), and some intricate line illustrations in the early editions of his books. He died on 30 December 1948.
William S. Burroughs cited Denton Welch as the writer who most influenced his own work (W.S Burroughs, The Cat Inside, Penguin books 2002, p. 67) and dedicated his novel The Place of Dead Roads to him.
Link to Wikipedia biography