Mike Tomkies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mike Tomkies The Wilderness Man (born May 25, 1928), is a British nature writer.
He worked as a journalist in Europe and Hollywood in the late 1960s.
After serving in the Coldstream Guards (where he was an army athlete), including active service in Palestine. He worked as a newspaper reporter and was a successful amateur cycle racer.
An attempt to sail around the world in 1952 ended with him being shipwrecked and having to walk 400 miles from Lisbon to Madrid.
Working in Fleet Street, he interviewed stars including Ava Gardner (just after her divorce from Frank Sinatra); Mario Lanza, Elvis Presley, Sophia Loren, Errol Flynn, Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Yul Brynner, Clark Gable, Dean Martin, Rock Hudson, Jayne Mansfield, Cary Grant, Paul Newman, Joan Collins, Peter O'Toole and Sean Connery.
At 38 he decideed to start a new life in Canada.
Later, Tomkies found Eilean Shona, a remote island off the west coast of Scotland. There he rebuilt a wooden crofthouse which had been used as a shelter for sheep and began observing and writing about nature.
He had a cottage at Gaskan on the shore of Loch Shiel, which he named "Wildernesse", and where he wrote several of his books.
For eight years, his only companion was his german shepherd dog, Moobli
[edit] Bibliography
- The Big Man : the John Wayne Story, Barker (1971) ISBN 0-213-00342-2
- It Sure Beats Working: The Robert Mitchum Story, W. H. Allen (1972) ISBN 0-491-00962-3
- A World of My Own: Adventure and Personal Renewal in the Wilderness, Fitzhenry and Whiteside, (Toronto, 1976) ISBN 0-88902-044-2; republished as:
- Alone in the Wilderness Macdonald and Jane's (1977) ISBN 0-354-04142-8
- Alone in the Wilderness Whittles (2001) ISBN 1-870325-14-1
- My Wilderness Wildcats, Macdonald and Jane's (1977) ISBN 0-354-04223-8
- Liane: A Cat from the Wild, Macdonald and Jane's (1979) ISBN 0-354-04374-9
- Between Earth and Paradise, Heinemann (1981) ISBN 0-434-78800-7
- A Last Wild Place Jonathon Cape (1984) ISBN 0-224-02219-9
- Between Earth and Paradise, Jonathan Cape (1991) ISBN 0-224-02880-4 (revised edition)
- Between Earth and Paradise, Whittles Publishing (latest edition)
- Golden Eagle Years, Heinemann (1982) ISBN 0-434-78801-5
- Out of the Wild, Jonathon Cape, (1985) ISBN 0-224-02317-9
- On Wing and Wild Water, Jonathon Cape (1987) ISBN 0-224-02825-1
- Wildcat Haven: the Complete Story of My Wilderness Wildcats and Liane, a Cat from the Wild Revised and Updated, Jonathon Cape (1987) ISBN 0-224-02502-3
- Moobli, Cape (1988), ISBN 1-85089-617-8
- In Spain's Secret Wilderness, Jonathon Cape (1989) ISBN 0-224-02716-6
- Wildcats (with illustrations by Dennis Ovenden), Whittet Books (1991) ISBN 0-905483-86-3
- Last Wild Years, Jonathon Cape (1992) ISBN 0-224-03313-1
- My Wicked First Life - Before the Wilderness, Whittles Publishing
