Odette Tchernine () was a British author, cryptozoologist, novelist and journalist.
Biography
Tchernine was born in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
to a Russian financier father, Dimitri Tchernine (Dmitry Chernin), and a French mother, Yvonne, from
Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...
. She grew up in Kensington. She had a younger brother, Serge Tchernine. Her second novel, published in 1922, was about the
Australian bush
"The bush" is a term mostly used in the English vernacular of Australia and New Zealand where it is largely synonymous with ''wikt:backwoods, backwoods'' or ''hinterland'', referring to a natural undeveloped area. The fauna and flora containe ...
.
Cryptozoology
Tchernine is best known for writing several books on the abominable snowman or
Richard Carrington
Richard Christopher Carrington (26 May 1826 – 27 November 1875) was an English amateur astronomy, amateur astronomer whose 1859 astronomical observations demonstrated the existence of solar flares as well as suggesting their electrical influ ...
wrote that the treatment of the yeti in Tchernine's ''The Snowman and Company'' is uncritical and she presented no reliable evidence for its existence. He concluded that the book was well written but only the credulous or romantic reader will find it entertaining.
Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf
Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf or Christopher von Fürer-Haimendorf FRAI (22 June 1909 – 11 June 1995) was an Austrian ethnologist and professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies at London. He spent forty years studying tr ...
stated that Tchernine's data on the yeti that she took from Russian sources are too contradictory and vague to be regarded as reliable evidence.
Tchernine's ''In Pursuit of the Abominable Snowman'' was negatively reviewed by
Jane M. Oppenheimer
Jane Marion Oppenheimer (1911–1996) was an American embryologist and historian of science.
Early life, interests, and education
Oppenheimer was born in Philadelphia, the only child of James H. Oppenheimer and Sylvia Stern. Her father, a phys ...
who commented that the evidence collected for the yeti was mostly taken from dubious Russian sources which are anecdotal or suggestive and that a specialist will demand much stronger evidence.
Selected publications
*''Thou Shalt Not Fail'' (1916)
*''Explorers' and Travellers' Tales'' (1958)
*''The Snowman and Company'' (with a foreword by Eric Shipton, 1961)
*''Explorers Remember'' (1967)
*''The Yeti'' (1970)
*''In Pursuit of the Abominable Snowman'' (1971)
*''The Singing Dust'' (1976, with
Gerald Moore
Gerald Moore CBE (30 July 1899 – 13 March 1987) was an English classical pianist best known for his career as a collaborative pianist for many distinguished musicians. Among those with whom he was closely associated were Dietrich Fischer-Di ...