Redmond O'Hanlon
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Redmond O'Hanlon
FRGS The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the ...
is an English writer and scholar.


Early life and education

O'Hanlon was born in
Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...
, England. He was educated at
Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English private boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. It was founded as Marlborough School in 1843 by the Dean of Manchester, George ...
and then
Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
. After taking his M.Phil. in nineteenth-century English studies in 1971 he was elected senior scholar, and in 1974 Alistair Horne Research Fellow, at
St Antony's College, Oxford St Antony's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in international relations, economics, politic ...
. He completed his doctoral thesis, ''Changing scientific concepts of nature in the English novel, 1850–1920'', in 1977. Though very religious when he was young, O'Hanlon became an
atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
upon his discovery of the works of
Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...
.


Career

From 1970 to 1974, O'Hanlon was a member of the literature panel of the
Arts Council of Great Britain The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council (l ...
. He was elected a member of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History in 1982, a Fellow of the
Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
in 1984 and a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...
in 1993. For 15 years, he was the natural history editor of ''
The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...
''. O'Hanlon has become known for his journeys into some of the most remote jungles of the world, in Borneo, the Amazon basin and Congo. He has also written a harrowing account of a trip to the North Atlantic on a trawler. Between September 2009 and May 2010, O'Hanlon was a guest and co-presenter on the programme '' Beagle: In Darwin's wake'' for both
Canvas Canvas is an extremely durable Plain weave, plain-woven Cloth, fabric used for making sails, tents, Tent#Marquees and larger tents, marquees, backpacks, Shelter (building), shelters, as a Support (art), support for oil painting and for other ite ...
in Belgium and
VPRO The VPRO (stylized vpro; originally an acronym for ''Vrijzinnig Protestantse Radio Omroep'', lit. 'Liberal Protestant Radio Broadcaster', nowadays known as ''Omroepvereniging VPRO'') is a Netherlands, Dutch Public broadcasting, public broadca ...
Television in the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
. In the programme, the clipper ''
Stad Amsterdam ''Stad Amsterdam'' (''City of Amsterdam'') is a three-masted clipper that was built in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 2000 at the Damen Shipyard. The ship was designed by Gerard Dijkstra who modelled her after the mid-19th century frigate ''Ams ...
'' re-traced the route that Charles Darwin took aboard (1831–36), a journey that played a seminal role in his thinking on
evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...
. O'Hanlon attended the ''Science & Technology Summit'' at the
World Forum Convention Center The World Forum (originally known as Nederlands Congresgebouw and formerly Nederlands Congres Centrum and World Forum Convention Center) is a concert venue and convention centre in The Hague, Netherlands, near the buildings of the Organisation ...
in
The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
on 18 November 2010. Fellow ''Beagle'' shipmate
Sarah Darwin Sarah Catherine Darwin FLS (born 1 April 1964) is a British botanist. Education and career Darwin earned a BSc in Botany from Reading University in 1999 and a PhD from University College London in 2009. Her PhD thesis was entitled ''The systema ...
was another featured guest at this convention. In November 2011, VPRO Television began broadcasting ''O'Hanlons helden'' (English: O'Hanlon's heroes). In this eight-part series O'Hanlon introduces the viewer to his heroes of the nineteenth century. The programme was awarded the prestigious Dutch television award, ''De Zilveren Nipkowschijf'' (English: The Silver
Nipkow disk A Nipkow disk (sometimes Anglicized as Nipkov disk; patented in 1884), also known as scanning disk, is a mechanical, rotating, geometrically operating image scanning device, patented by Paul Gottlieb Nipkow in Berlin. This scanning disk was a f ...
). This Silver 1st prize is awarded annually by a professional jury to the best quality television programme. A second eight-part series of ''O'Hanlons helden'' was broadcast during the winter of 2013–2014.


Published works

* ''Charles Darwin 1809–1882: A Centennial Commemoration'' (1982) (contributor) * ''Joseph Conrad and Charles Darwin: The Influence of Scientific Thought on Conrad's Fiction'' (1984) * ''Into the Heart of Borneo'' (1984) * ''In Trouble Again: A Journey Between the Orinoco and the Amazon'' (1988) * '' Congo Journey'' (1996), American edition: ''No Mercy: A Journey Into the Heart of the Congo'' (1997) * ''Trawler'' (2005) * ith Rudy Rotthier''God, Darwin en natuur'' (2009), English translation: ''The Fetish Room'' (2011)


References


External links


Article in the Guardian newspaper
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ohanlon, Redmond 1947 births Living people English travel writers English people of Irish descent Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature People educated at Marlborough College Alumni of the University of Oxford Fellows of St Antony's College, Oxford English atheists