About Marq de Villiers
Marq de Villiers was born in South Africa in 1940 and grew up in the dry country north of the Great Karoo. He worked as a newspaper reporter and foreign correspondent before moving into magazine editing in Toronto, and has been writing non-fiction books since 1987.
He studied at the London School of Economics, where his teachers included the Soviet historian Leonard Schapiro, and later taught at Ryerson in Toronto and at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
He was married to the artist, art director and editor Sheila Hirtle until her death in 2024. She co-wrote five of his books. He lives in Nova Scotia.
Career
- 1962-68 - Reporter, Toronto Telegram; editor, Reuters, London; senior feature writer, Cape Times, Cape Town
- 1969-71 - Moscow correspondent, Toronto Telegram, and bureau chief for Look and Venture magazines, reporting from across the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
- 1971-78 - Freelance magazine writer and contributing editor, Weekend Magazine, Montreal
- 1979-81 - Executive editor, Toronto Life
- 1981-92 - Editor, Toronto Life
- 1992-93 - Publisher, Toronto Life
- 1993-2004 - Editorial director, WHERE Magazines International
- 1987 onwards - Author of non-fiction books
Awards and honours
- Member of the Order of Canada, 2010
- Honorary Doctor of Laws, Dalhousie University, 2011
- Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-fiction, 1999, for Water
- Canadian Science Writers’ Association Award, for Water
- Evelyn Richardson Prize for Non-fiction, for A Dune Adrift (with Sheila Hirtle)
- Evelyn Richardson Prize for Non-fiction, for Witch in the Wind
- Dartmouth Book Award for Non-fiction, for Witch in the Wind
- Alan Paton Award, 1987 (its first year), for White Tribe Dreaming
Shortlists
- Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-fiction, for The Heartbreak Grape
- James Beard Award (Wine & Spirits), for The Heartbreak Grape
- Julia Child Award for Literary Food Writing, for The Heartbreak Grape
- Pearson Writers’ Trust Non-fiction Prize, for Sahara
- Banff Mountain Book Festival (Adventure Travel), for Sahara
- Donner Prize, for Back to the Well
- Evelyn Richardson Prize, for Back to the Well