Colin Tudge
Encyclopedia
Colin Tudge is a British
science writer and broadcaster. A biologist by training, he is the author of numerous works on food, agriculture, genetics, and species diversity.
Tudge was born and brought up in south London
and attended Dulwich College
, from where he won a scholarship to Peterhouse, Cambridge
, studying zoology and English. In his career he has worked for World Medicine, Farmers' Weekly and New Scientist
, before becoming a freelance writer. In the 1980s he was a regular broadcaster for the BBC
, including the BBC Radio 4
science series Spectrum; he wrote and presented The Food Connection; he made one-off documentaries and guest appearances.
He lives in Oxford
with his second wife, Ruth West. He was married to Rosemary Tudge and had three children, Amanda, Amy and Robin, the last being an author of political works.
Co-authorships
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science writer and broadcaster. A biologist by training, he is the author of numerous works on food, agriculture, genetics, and species diversity.
Tudge was born and brought up in south London
South London
South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...
and attended Dulwich College
Dulwich College
Dulwich College is an independent school for boys in Dulwich, southeast London, England. The college was founded in 1619 by Edward Alleyn, a successful Elizabethan actor, with the original purpose of educating 12 poor scholars as the foundation of "God's Gift". It currently has about 1,600 boys,...
, from where he won a scholarship to Peterhouse, Cambridge
Peterhouse, Cambridge
Peterhouse is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the oldest college of the University, having been founded in 1284 by Hugo de Balsham, Bishop of Ely...
, studying zoology and English. In his career he has worked for World Medicine, Farmers' Weekly and New Scientist
New Scientist
New Scientist is a weekly non-peer-reviewed English-language international science magazine, which since 1996 has also run a website, covering recent developments in science and technology for a general audience. Founded in 1956, it is published by Reed Business Information Ltd, a subsidiary of...
, before becoming a freelance writer. In the 1980s he was a regular broadcaster for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, including the BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
science series Spectrum; he wrote and presented The Food Connection; he made one-off documentaries and guest appearances.
He lives in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
with his second wife, Ruth West. He was married to Rosemary Tudge and had three children, Amanda, Amy and Robin, the last being an author of political works.
Works
- Consider the Birds: How They Live and Why They Matter London, 2008. Penguin. Explores various aspects of the life of birds from their migrations to their complicated family lives, their differing habitats and survival techniques to the secrets of flight, it discusses how birds live, why they matter, and whether they really are dinosaurs.
- Feeding People is Easy. Pari Publishing, Italy. 2007. When agriculture is expressly designed to feed people, all the associated problems seem to solve themselves.
- The Secret Life of Trees. Allen Lane, London, 2005. Penguin Books, London, 2006. Published as The Tree by Crown, New York, 2006. ISBN 0-713-99698-6
- So Shall We Reap: the Concept of Enlightened Agriculture. Allen Lane, London 2003; Penguin Books, London, 2004. An alternative title is So Shall We Reap: how everyone who is liable to be born in the next ten thousand years could eat very well indeed; and why, in practice, our immediate descendants are likely to be in serious trouble, on the future of agriculture, in which he challenges the current science and technology paradigm and outlines a sustainableSustainabilitySustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
way of feeding the population of the worldWorld populationThe world population is the total number of living humans on the planet Earth. As of today, it is estimated to be billion by the United States Census Bureau...
, expected to stabilise at ten billion people by the middle of the 21st Century.
- In Mendel's Footnotes: Genes and Genetics from the 19th century to the 22nd'. Jonathan Cape, 2000. Paperback: Vintage, 2002. Published as The Impact of the Gene, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York, 2001. ISBN 0-09-928875-3
- The Variety of Life: A Survey and a Celebration of All the Creatures That Have Ever Lived. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2000. Paperback, March 2002. An accessible phylogeny of life, explaining in clear terms the descent and interrelationships of most kinds of organism.
- Neanderthals, Bandits and FarmersNeanderthals, Bandits and FarmersNeanderthals, Bandits and Farmers: How Agriculture Really Began is a book by the British science writer Colin Tudge. The book is one of a series of long essays by respected contemporary Darwinian thinkers, which were published under the collective title Darwinism Today; the series was inspired by a...
. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1998. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1999. ISBN 0-297-84258-7. A small book explaining how agriculture began. The book is one of a series of long essays by respected contemporary DarwinianDarwinismDarwinism is a set of movements and concepts related to ideas of transmutation of species or of evolution, including some ideas with no connection to the work of Charles Darwin....
thinkers, which were published under the collective title Darwinism Today; the series was inspired by a course of 'Darwin Seminars' which took place at the London School of EconomicsLondon School of EconomicsThe London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
(LSE) in the late 1990s. http://www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/cpnss/darwin/index.htm
- The Day Before Yesterday. Jonathan Cape, London, 1995. Pimlico, London, 1996. Published in the US as The Time Before History: 5 Million Years of Human Impact, Scribner, New York 1996. Touchstone, New York, 1997.
- The Engineer in the Garden: Genes and Genetics from the Idea of Heredity to the Creation of Life. Jonathan Cape, London, 1993. Hill & Wang, New York, 1995. Pimlico (Pbk) 1995
- Last Animals at the Zoo Hutchinson Radius, London, 1991. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1992. Island Press, Washington, 1992.
- Global Ecology. Natural History Museum, 1991. Oxford University Press, New York 1991.
- Food Crops for the Future. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1988.
- The Food Connection. British Broadcasting Corporation, London, 1985.
- Future Cook. Mitchell Beazley 1980. Published as Future Food, Harmony Books, New York, 1980.
- The Famine Business. Faber and Faber, London 1977. St Martin's Press, New York, 1977. Penguin Books (Pelican), Middlesex, 1979.
Co-authorships
- The Second Creation: DollyDolly the SheepDolly was a female domestic sheep, and the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell, using the process of nuclear transfer. She was cloned by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and colleagues at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh in Scotland...
and the Age of Biological Control. (co-authored with Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell). Headline, London, 2000. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2000.
- Home Farm. (co-authored with Michael Allaby). Macmillan, London, 1977. Sphere Books, London, 1979.
External links
- Colin Tudge Personal Website
- Colin Tudge Biography
- Colin Tudge, Chris Leaver and Tony Trewavas (2003): Brave new world? New Scientist 178, 44-47f
- Colin Tudge: Bad for the Poor, Bad for Science. Guardian newspaper article 20 February 2004
- Colin Tudge: lecture to the Soil Association 12 July 2005 “Can Organic Farming feed the world?”