Pye-Smith, Charlie 1951–

PERSONAL: Born June 27, 1951, in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England; son of John (a doctor) and Margaret (a chiropodist; maiden name, Durran) Pye-Smith; married Sandie Willson (a teacher), 1988. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, B.S. (with honors), 1974; University College, London, M.S., 1979. Politics: "Variable." Religion: Christian. Hobbies and other interests: Trout fishing, walking.

ADDRESSES: Home and office—67 Marryat Rd., London SW19 5BN, England. Agent—Vivien Green, Shiel and Associates, 43 Doughty St., London WC1N 2LF, England. E-mail—cpyesmith@blueyonder.co.uk.

CAREER: Writer and journalist, 1980–.

WRITINGS:

(With Chris Rose) Crisis and Conservation, Pelican (Gretna, LA), 1984.

Conservation, MacDonald (London, England), 1984.

(With Richard North) Working the Land, Temple Smith (London, England), 1985.

The Other Nile, Viking (New York, NY), 1986.

(Editor, with Chris Hall) The Countryside We Want: A Manifesto for the Year 2000, Green Books (Hartland, Bideford, Devon, England), 1987.

The Sequestered Kingdom: Travels in Nepal, Aurum (New York, NY), 1988.

In Search of Neptune, The Trust (London, England), 1990.

In Search of Wild India (three-part documentary; produced by British Broadcasting Corp.-BBC 4 and Discovery Channel cable television network, 1992), UBS (New Delhi, India), 1993.

Barcelona: A Celebration and a Guide, Penguin (New York, NY), 1993.

(With Grazia Borrini and Richard Sandbrook) The Wealth of Communities: Stories of Success in Local Environmental Management, Kumarian Press (West Hartford, CT), 1994.

Nile—River of Gods (television documentary), Discovery Channel, 1995.

The Philippines: In Search of Justice, Oxfam (Oxford, England), 1997.

Rebels and Outcasts: A Journey through Christian India, Penguin (New York, NY), 1998.

The Subsidy Scandal: How Your Government Wastes Your Money to Wreck Your Environment, Earthscan (Sterling, VA), 2002.

Also writer for Only One Earth (television series) and companion magazine, BBC Wildlife; Global Concerns (three series of radio programs), BBC World Service; and Omnibus, (documentary series), BBC World Service. Contributor to periodicals, including Independent, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Country Living, National, New Scientist, People and Planet, and Green Futures. Past editor, ECOS magazine.

SIDELIGHTS: Charlie Pye-Smith began writing full-time in 1980 as an editor for ECOS magazine. His travel pieces have featured Nepal, Java, Senegal, Sudan, Hungary, Cairo, Camargue, Corbieres, Seattle, and Yorkshire. Pye-Smith's features about rural affairs have addressed the subjects of farming, wildlife conservation, poaching, and fishing. His writings also encompass development issues, including the greening of Bombay, Calcutta sewage disposal, ecotourism in Senegal, community projects in Nepal, trade, and aid. One of Pye-Smith's books is The Philippines: In Search of Justice. In the book, an Oxfam "Community Aid Abroad Country Profile," he points out that although downtown middle-class Manila resembles Los Angeles, the poor of the Philippines, including over a third of the 8 million people in Manila, are homeless or close to being homeless. The book discusses the social, environmental, and economic issues that have resulted in the unequal distribution of resources, leading to the extreme poverty of these Filipino people.

Pye-Smith traveled throughout India in writing Rebels and Outcasts: A Journey through Christian India. Although India is often thought of as a Hindu country that also has a large Muslim minority, there are dozens of Christian denominations totaling approximately 30 million people who live there. Some believe that St. Thomas brought Christianity to India in the year A.D. 52, and others feel Jesus spent time in India. Pye-Smith examines how the churches have helped or hindered the problems of India, including tribal conflict, poverty, and the caste system. An Economist reviewer wrote that Pye-Smith discovers "a meeting place for the wisdom of the East and the knowledge of the West."

Pye-Smith once told CA: "My special interests are Third World development issues, farming issues, the politics of aid, and the survival of the British rural way of life. Over the past couple of years I have written on a range of subjects. Between them, they reflect my various interests and include: Indian Christianity; fox hunting; the abuse of science, especially by 'animal rights' organizations and single-issue pressure groups; the British farming crisis; Maori land rights in New Zealand; crop-raiding elephants in Zimbabwe; vicars who hunt and shoot; and various other subjects."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Economist, April 18, 1998, review of Rebels and Outcasts: A Journey through Christian India, p. S11.