Peter Marshall (author)

Peter Hugh Marshall (born 23 August 1946) is an English philosopher, historian, biographer, travel writer and poet. He has written fifteen books which are being translated into fourteen different languages. He wrote, presented and partly filmed the 6-part HTV series 'Voyage Around Africa', first shown in 1994.[1] He also wrote and presented the two-part series 'Celtic Gold: A Voyage around Ireland' for BBC Radio Wales in 1995, which later became a book.[2][3]

Life

Born in Bognor Regis, England, Marshall became a boarder at Steyning Grammar School in the Sussex Downs. He then sailed around the world as a purser cadet in the Merchant Navy before teaching English in Senegal, West Africa.

He returned to England to take a Bachelor of Arts in English, French and Spanish from the University of London and a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy in the History of Ideas from the University of Sussex. As a part-time tutor, he taught in the Extra-Mural departments of the University of London and the University of Wales, the Open University, and the Brighton and Chelsea schools of art.

In the 1970s, Marshall was a founder member of Redfield community in Winslow, Buckinghamshire, England. He went in 1980 to live in Snowdonia National Park in North Wales to write his first book. He stayed on for 21 years, first living in a remote cottage in the mountains and then down by the sea. He now lives in Devon, England. He has two children.

Marshall has contributed to fields as diverse as anarchism, ecology, alchemy and archaeology. He has been described by Resurgence magazine as one of the 25 'visionary voices' who have shaped the new world view in the last quarter of the 20th century.[4] His philosophy of Liberation Ecology is presented in Riding the Wind (1998).

Marshall has been described as "a passionate ecologist and animal liberationist" by The Guardian.[5] He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the Society of Authors.

Works
  • William Godwin: Philosopher, Novelist, Revolutionary (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984)
  • Journey through Tanzania, with photographers Mohamed Amin & Duncan Willetts (London: Bodley Head, 1984)
  • Into Cuba with photographer Barry Lewis (London: Zena, 1985)
  • (ed), The Anarchist Writings of William Godwin (London: Freedom Press, 1986)
  • Cuba Libre: Breaking the Chains? (London: Victor Gollancz, 1987)
  • William Blake: Visionary Anarchist (London: Freedom Press, 1988)
  • Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism (London: HarperCollins, 1991)
  • Nature's Web: An Exploration of Ecological Thinking (London: Simon & Schuster, 1992)
  • Journey through Maldives, with photographers Mohamed Amin & Duncan Willetts (Nairobi: Camerapix,1992)
  • Around Africa: From the Pillars of Hercules to the Strait of Gibraltar (London: Simon & Schuster, 1994)
  • Celtic Gold: A Voyage Around Ireland (London: Sinclair Stevenson, 1997)
  • Riding the Wind: A New Philosophy for a New Era (London: Continuum, 1998)
  • The Philosopher's Stone: A Quest for the Secrets of Alchemy (London: Macmillan, 2001) ISBN 9780330489102
  • World Astrology: The Astrologer's Quest to Understand the Human Character (London: Macmillan, 2003)
  • Europe's Lost Civilization: Uncovering the Mysteries of the Megaliths (London: Headline, 2004)
  • The Theatre of the World: Alchemy, Astrology and Magic in Renaissance Prague (London: Harvill Secker,2006). Also published as The Magic Circle of Rudolf II (New York: 2006) and The Mercurial Emperor (London: Pimlico,2007)
  • Poseidon's Realm: A Voyage Around the Aegean (London: Zena Publications, 2016)
  • Bognor Boy: How I Became an Anarchist (London: Zena Publications, 2018)

Notes
  1. See BFI Film and TV database
  2. See AM. Heath.com (author's agent)
  3. Lorna Siggins, ."Celtic Gold:A Voyage Around Ireland" (Book Review). Irish Times,20 August 1997, p. 14.
  4. Resurgence Magazine,Issue 201, July/August,2000
  5. Walter Schwarz, "How Green Were Our Values?" (Review of Nature's Web). The Guardian 19 December 1992, p.25.
gollark: There are multiple kinds of tech enthusiast.
gollark: A lot of the time you're just doing boring drudgery integrating other already-existing things, which will soon be significantly automated I think. Sometimes you actually need to spend time thinking about clever algorithms to do a thing, or how to make your thing go faster, or why your code mysteriously doesn't work, which is harder.
gollark: It's mentally challenging, sometimes, but obviously not particularly physically hard.
gollark: There are lots of cool applications now. Automatic generation of art, protein folding, human-level competitive programming, good OCR.
gollark: Ah, but it's *very complicated* curve fitting which can sometimes do interesting things.
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