Robin Clarke

Robin Clarke was born a very long time ago, before World War II. He can remember bombs and barbed wire, and this may explain why some of his books deal with war and its horrors. The rest of his work is due more to the President of the Royal Society who advised him to become a popular science writer when he left the University of Cambridge.

He did, and good advice it was, providing him with a lifelong education, a satisfactory income and travel to more than 50 countries.

He started as a sub-editor on Enclyopaedia Britannica, before becoming assistant editor and then editor of the popular science magazine Discovery. His next move, to a new and more ambitious magazine, Science Journal, got him well known in the science writing circle, particularly the Association of British Science Writers.

When Science Journal was absorbed by the New Scientist, he used his redundancy money to take a year off to write his best book (in his opinion) The Science of War and Peace.

He worked for Unesco in Paris during 1969-1970 where he wrote and edited, together with Adriano Buzzati-Traverso, an epic work on the role of science in society (The Scientific Enterprise: today and tomorrow). Disillusioned with the bureaucracy of United Nations institutions, he then entered his hippy phase, helping create the alternative technology institution called Biotechnic Research and Development (BRAD). This led to a short but enjoyable career as a sheep farmer on the Welsh borders. He returned to popular science writing and travelled extensively for many international organizations.

The latter may help explain his move to France in 1993 and his naturalization in France, together with his son, in the year 2000. He and his wife now divide their time between two small houses in the Périgord and in Provence.

He has done no serious writing since he was sacked by the World Meteorological Organization after 17 years as the editor of its World Climate News. His crime was to use information from a source expressly provided to him for that purpose by a different WMO member!

Apart from writing books, he edited the 12-volume Thames and Hudson "World of Science Series" and was Editor of UNEP's "Global Environment Report" for longer than was really necessary.He wrote myriad reports for many of the UN Specialized Agencies including the Food and Agriculture Organization, the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Meteorological Organization and the World Health Organization. He and his wife were founding members of "Words and Publications", a UK firm dedicated to the writing, translation, layout and design of international publications.