| Patrick
Armstrong |
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| Nationality - English |
Profession - Author |
| Date of birth - 10 Oct 1941
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Date of death - Still with us |
| Place of birth
- Leeds : Yorkshire |
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Patrick Armstrong was born on October 10, 1941 in Leeds, where his father was Vicar of what was then called a "slum parish".
The Revd Edward Armstrong, although he came originally from the North and Ireland, and remained as an Irishman to the end of his days, also liked to think of himself as in the tradition of the "English Parson-Naturalist" - an important figure in the English Church, and English science, for several centuries.
Edward was a distinguished ornithologist, and amongst Patrick's early recollections were of walks in the English and Irish countrysides looking at plants, rocks, and birds.
The "sense of wonder" and "love of nature" that Patrick picked up in his youth have remained with him.
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Although his earliest years were spent in Yorkshire, and Patrick has retained his love for the North of England, much of his childhood was in Cambridge; holidays were sometimes spent amongst the woods and fields, and along the coasts of East Anglia. But later, seeing the advantages of getting away from home for university studies, Patrick went to Durham University, where he read Geography, Geology and Botany. His special interest was in biogegraphy and ecology, and he has been teaching and researching these subjects, in one way and another, ever since.
After working in what was then a college of technology in eastern England for a few years, Patrick felt that he needed new challenges, and moved to Australia where he spent the latter part of his career teaching at a university. In Australia he found landscapes that were on a vaster scale that in England. Patrick has driven across the deserts of the Nullarbor Plain, explored the tall karri forests of south-west Australia, ascended Ayers Rock (Uluru), and counted magpie geese in the tropical swamps of Kakadu in the north, and penguins on tiny islands to the south. The principles of ecology, however - the inteconnectedness of all living things - remain the same, in Suffolk and in South Australia, in Norfolk and the Northern Territory.
As well as his series of Ladybird books, Patrick has written a book called "The English Parson-Naturalist" (Gracewing, 2000) for obvious reasons. "The Changing Landscape" (Terence Dalton, 1975) was on the land-use history and ecology of East Anglia. He has written a number of books on the life and work of Charles Darwin; the most recent of these was "Darwin's Other Islands" (Continuum, 2004) which shows that there was much more to the voyage of the Beagle than just the Galalagos. Research for this book has taken Patrick to many of the islands that Darwin visited - the Cocos Islands (a coral atoll in the Indian Ocean), Tahiti, Tierra del Fuego, the Falklands and the Azores amongst them. He has also written a number of geography and ecology text-books, for use in Australia, the UK and elsewhere.
Patrick is married, has two adult children, and increasing number of grandchilden. He still writes books, does some teaching, and marks examination papers. He enjoys photography, walking, gentle cycling and travel. He lives in a rather English-style house very close to the univesity where he taught for 30 years.
Read our interview with Patrick Armstrong > |
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Patrick Armstrong
bibliography - 6
listed |
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Click
on one of the Patrick
Armstrong books below
for details on synopsis, first edition issue
points, a picture of the book, and collectors
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| Patrick
Armstrong books Wee
have for sale |
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All
the Patrick Armstrong
books listed below are currently for sale
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