Dr Andrew Norman
Dr Andrew Norman | |
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I was born in Newbury, Berkshire, UK in 1943, and educated at Thornhill High School, Gwelo, Southern Rhodesia and at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. In 1970 I qualified in medicine and worked as a family doctor in the UK until 1983 when I sustained a back injury. I then decided to use my diagnostic skills in a different way and become a writer. I am married to Rachel.
Find out more:
The Desire to Write
An Enquiring Mind
Current Projects
Ideas for Books
In this, I have been extraordinarily fortunate. For example, I met a Fleet Air Arm pilot who escorted HMS HOOD on her last, fateful voyage; Conan Doyle, like myself, was a doctor, and was taught his trade by the real life Dr Bell, who taught Doyle to be a ‘medical detective’; in Swanage, I met Enid Blyton’s former golf caddie Johnny James, which helped inspire me to write Enid Blyton and her Enchantment with Dorset; in nearby Harman’s Cross, I met the late, eminent sculptress Mary Spencer Watson – hence Dunshay: Reflections on a Dorset Manor House; my Dorchester ancestors were baptized by the Reverend Henry Moule whose son was a great friend of Thomas Hardy – hence Thomas Hardy: Christmas Carollings; my years in Rhodesia led me to wonder what has gone so terribly wrong with that country – hence Robert Mugabe and the Betrayal of Zimbabwe; in a nursing home which I once owned, I met a patient called Helen Taylor who recalled her days in the now ruined Dorset village of Tyneham – hence Tyneham: Portrait of the Lost Village; I am proud of the fact that I also have Devon ancestry – hence Sir Francis Drake: Behind the Pirate’s Mask.
My Jane Austin biography was inspired by seeing some of her personal possessions displayed on the Antiques Roadshow!