Thomas Pakenham, 8th Earl of Longford

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Thomas Francis Dermot Pakenham, 8th Earl of Longford KBE also known as Thomas Pakenham (born August 14, 1933 in Bayswater , London ) is a British historian , writer and chairman of the Irish Tree Society .

Life

Thomas Pakenham's family comes from the Anglo-Irish aristocracy . His father was Frank Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford (1905-2001), a university professor of politics at Oxford , who sat from 1945 to 1951 in the Labor governments as junior minister. Between 1964 and 1968 he was a member of the Cabinet as Lord Seal Keeper. In the House of Lords he was known as an opponent of pornography . Thomas Pakenham's mother, Elizabeth Harman (1906–2002), a recognized historian, also wrote more than a dozen books. He and his siblings grew up in a world of literature and, even more unusual, a world of Anglicans converting to Catholicism .

After studying at Magdalen College of Oxford University Thomas Pakenham 1955 traveled to Ethiopia . On the trip he wrote his first book, The Mountains of Rasselas: Ethiopian Adventure . The book was later filmed as a television documentary series and repeated several times. On his return to England he worked on the editorial staff of the Times Educational Supplement and later for The Sunday Telegraph and The Observer . For the next several years he shuttled back and forth between London and County Westmeath - where he served as chairman of the Irish Tree Society and volunteer overseer of Tullynally Castle .

He has been married to Valerie Susan McNair Scott (* 1939) since July 23, 1964, with whom he has two daughters and two sons. Today the couple lives alternately in London and on the family home in Ireland .

He inherited the title of Earl of Longford in 2001 when his father died. But he does not use it, any more than he had previously used the courtesy title due to him.

literature

  • The Mountains of Rasselas: Ethiopian Adventure
  • The Year of Liberty: The History of the Great Irish Rebellion of 1798
  • The Boer War
  • The Scramble for Africa
  • Meetings with Remarkable Trees
  • Remarkable Trees of the World
  • Remarkable baobab

Awards

  • WH Smith Literary Award
  • Alan Paton Award

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Thomas Frank Dermot Pakenham, 8th Earl of Longford on thepeerage.com , accessed September 18, 2016.
predecessor Office successor
Frank Pakenham Earl of Longford
2001 – present 		current owner of the title
personal data
SURNAME Pakenham, Thomas, 8th Earl of Longford
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pakenham, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British historian and writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 14, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Bayswater , London