- Source: David McDowall (author)
David Buchanan McDowall (born 1945) is a British author specialising in Middle Eastern and British history.
Early life
Born in London in 1945, he attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. and St John’s College, Oxford where he studied Islamic History and Modern Middle East Studies under Albert Hourani
Career
Royal Artillery, in Britain and Hong Kong, 1965-70; British Council, in Bombay and Baghdad, 1972-77; the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Beirut and Vienna, 1977-79; self-employed thereafter, Oxfam relief worker Lebanon 1982, full-time research and writing from 1983.
Personal life
Married to writer Elizabeth Laird, in 1975; two children: Angus, journalist, and William, academic.
Selected publications
Middle East
Lebanon: A Conflict of Minorities (Minority Rights Group, 1983), ISBN 0 946 690 07 3.
Palestine and Israel: The Uprising and Beyond (IBTauris, 1989), ISBN 1 85043 131 0, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1990), ISBN 0-520 0602 1
Europe and the Arabs: Discord or Symbiosis? (Royal Institute for International Affairs, 1992), ISBN 0 905031 53 9
A Modern History of the Kurds (IBTauris, London & New York, 1996, 1997 2000 and 4th ed., 2021) ISBN 978 0 7556 0079 3.
Britain
An Illustrated History of Britain (Longman, 1989) ISBN 9780582749146
Britain in Close-up (Longman, 1993), ISBN 9780582064614
Hampstead Heath (co-authored by Deborah Wolton, Frances Lincoln 2007), ISBN 9780711226531
Children's books
The Palestinians (Franklin Watts, 1986), ISBN 978 0 86313 484 5, winner of The Other Award 1987
The Columbus Project Book (Hodder, 1992), ISBN 9780340527801
The Spanish Armada (Batsford, 1988), ISBN 9780713456714.
British landscape guides
Richmond Park: The Walker’s Guide (1996, 2006), ISBN 9780952784746
Hampstead Heath: The Walker’s Guide co-author Deborah Wolton, (1998, 2021), ISBN 9781838198015
The Thames from Hampton to Richmond Bridge: The Walker’s Guide (2002), ISBN 9780952784722
The Thames from Richmond to Putney Bridge: The Walker’s Guide (2005), ISBN 9780952784739
Windsor Great Park: The Walker’s Guide (2007, 2021), ISBN 9781838198008.
Bute: A Guide (2010) ISBN 9780952784777
West Surrey: Walks into History (2013) ISBN 9780952784784
References
External links
A Modern History of the Kurds hosted by the Middle East Centre, LSE
David McDowall