Author, doctor, psychiatrist and journalist Theodore Dalrymple was born in London in 1949 to a German mother and Russian father. After qualifying as a doctor in 1974, he chose to travel and take his trade to the far flung shores of Zimbabwe, Tanzania, South Africa and the Gilbert Islands. When he returned to the United Kingdom he worked in the East End of London and then inner city Birmingham in a hospital and the nearby prison. His medical work has brought him into contact with drug addicts and alcoholics, career criminals and sex offenders, the mentally disturbed and battered wives and their lives have inspired him to write. He has also appeared as an expert witness in numerous murder trials.
Dalrymple has written widely and regularly for publications as diverse as The Spectator, The New Statesman, The Times, The Times Literary Supplement, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, The Sunday Times, and The British Medical Journal, as well as many prestigious American magazines and newspapers.
He also writes under his real name Anthony Daniels. Now retired from medical work, he is still a prolific writer and divides his time between the UK and France.
Praise for Theodore Dalrymple
'The harsh truths he tells are all the more shocking because the media, in general, is unwilling to tell them'
Daily Telegraph
‘Dalrymple’s clarity of thought, precision of expression and constant, terrible disappointment give his dispatches from the frontline a tone and a quality entirely their own… their rarity makes you sit up and take notice’
The Spectator
'He actually cares about the people at the bottom of the social heap while public sector jobsworths and slimy politicians only pretend to'
Daily Express
'He could not be further from the stereotype of the 'little Englander' conservative… he is arguably our greatest living essayist'
Standpoint
‘Dalrymple’s is the crystal voice of reason.’
Literary Review