Archibald, Malcolm

views updated

Archibald, Malcolm

PERSONAL:

Married; children: three. Hobbies and other interests: Writing, history, folklore, gardening, walking, soccer, and people.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Dundee College, Kingsway Campus, Old Glamis Rd., Dundee DD3 8LE, Scotland, United Kingdom.

CAREER:

Writer, educator. Dundee College, Dundee, Scotland, lecturer.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Dundee Book Prize, 2005, for Whales for the Wizard.

WRITINGS:

Scottish Battles, Chambers (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1990.

Scottish Myths and Legends, Chambers (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1992.

Scottish Animal and Bird Folklore, Saint Andrew Press (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1996.

Sixpence for the Wind: A Knot of Nautical Folklore, Whittles Publishing (Latheronwheel, Caithness, Scotland), 1999.

Across the Pond: Chapters from the Atlantic, Whittles Publishing (Latheronwheel, Caithness, Scotland), 1999.

Soldier of the Queen, Fledgling Press (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2002.

Whalehunters: Dundee and the Arctic Whalers, Mercat Press (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2004.

Whales for the Wizard (novel), Polygon (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2005.

Aspects of the Boer War: Boers and Horsemen, Fledgling Press (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2006.

Pryde's Rock (novel), Severn House (Sutton, England), 2007.

Also author of Horseman of the Veldt, Selkirk of the Fethan, and Mother Law: A Parchment for Dundee, all Fledgling Press (Edinburgh, Scotland).

SIDELIGHTS:

The author of numerous works dealing with aspects of Scottish history, Malcolm Archibald won the 2005 Dundee International Book Prize for his debut novel, Whales for the Wizard. This adventure novel is set in the 1860s amid the dangers of the Dundee whaling trade. Best-selling novelist Ian Rankin, a judge for the competition, termed Whales for the Wizard a "rip-roaring adventure mystery with terrific detail of place, period and shipping lore," on the Dundee International Book Prize Web site. Writing for Rambles.net, Gary Cramer had a mixed assessment of the novel, complaining of "literary devices that feel forced or, at least, too clumsy for full suspension of disbelief," but also finding that "there is much to be admired here." In his 2007 novel, Pryde's Rock, Archibald features the orphaned Matthew Pryde who is sent to a private school for gentlemen by a unknown benefactor. He becomes an engineer, and later finds a commission building a lighthouse on the Northumberland coast. There he meets once again one of the major bullies from his old school, and also sees that this locale holds the secret to his mysterious past. Reviewing the novel in Booklist, Patty Engelmann praised the "likable Everyman hero," further noting that the author "enriches the plot with interesting details pertaining to England's remote coastal life."