Norman Lewis, “Girl with Yellow Hat” (aka “Woman with Yellow Hat and Yellow Hat”) (1936), oil on burlap, 36 1/2 x 26 in (courtesy of Leslie Lewis and Christina Lewis Halpern from the ...

Norman Lewis, a revered British travel writer whose crisp storytelling took his readers where tourists rarely ventured, died Tuesday in Saffron Walden, Essex, outside of London.

Born in 1908, Lewis was clever, though badly bullied at school. At one point, he was sent away to live with his Welsh aunts, an episode he describes vividly in his memoir, Jackdaw Cake.