Paul Theroux

Theroux was born in Medford, Massachusetts, the son of Catholic parents, a French-Canadian father and an Italian mother. His French last name originates from the region around Sarthe and Yonne in France. It is quite common in Francophone countries and is originally spelled Théroux. After he finished his university education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he joined the Peace Corps and taught in Malawi from 1963 to 1965. While working there, he helped a political opponent of Hastings Banda escape to Uganda, for which he was expelled from Malawi and thrown out of the Peace Corps. He then moved to Uganda to teach at Makerere University. During his tenure at Makerere University, Theroux began his three-decade friendship with novelist V. S. Naipaul, then a visiting scholar at the university. During his time in Uganda, an angry mob at a demonstration threatened to overturn the car in which his pregnant wife was riding. The incident made Theroux decide to leave Africa. He moved again to Singapore. After two years of teaching at the University of Singapore, he settled in England, first in Dorset, and then in south London with his wife and two young children.

Theroux currently lives in Hawai‘i. He is currently married to Sheila Donnelly (since November 18, 1995). He was married to Anne Castle from 1967 to 1993. He has two sons with his first wife – Marcel Theroux and Louis Theroux – both of whom are writers and television presenters. He said his (first) wife and he decided to give them both French first names intentionally. In his books Theroux frequently alludes to his ability to speak Italian and French.