Taylor, Patrick 1941–

PERSONAL:

Born 1941, in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland; immigrated to Canada, 1970; married; wife's name Kate; children: Sarah. Education: Attended Campbell College, Belfast; graduated in medicine from Queen's University of Belfast, 1964. Hobbies and other interests: Sailing and navigation; building ship models.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Bowen Island, British Columbia, Canada. E-mail—editere@shaw.ca; editere@yahoo.com.

CAREER:

Medical doctor, specializing in obstetrics and gynecology. Practiced in Ulster, Northern Ireland; teacher and researcher in the field of human infertility, in Canada; University of British Columbia, Vancouver, emeritus professor of medicine, and St. Paul's Hospital, head of obstetrics and gynecology, retired, 2001.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Campbellian Prize for Literature, 1958, for "On Shootinge: An Essay in the Style of Francis Bacon"; three lifetime achievement awards in medicine, including the Lifetime Award of Excellence, Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society.

WRITINGS:

Only Wounded: Ulster Stories, Key Porter Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1997.

(With T.F. Baskett) The Complete Anthology of "En Passant," 1989-1999 (humor collection), Rogers Media (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1999.

NOVELS

Pray for Us Sinners, Insomniac Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2000.

The Apprenticeship of Doctor Laverty, Insomniac Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2004, published as An Irish Country Doctor (Volume 1 in "Irish Country Books" series), Forge (New York, NY), 2007.

Now and in the Hour of Our Death, Insomniac Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2005.

An Irish Country Village (Volume 2 in "Irish Country Books" series), Forge (New York, NY), 2008.

TEXT BOOKS

(With V. Gomel, A.A. Yzpe, and J.E. Rioux, Laparoscopy and Hysteroscopy in Gynecologic Practice, Year Book Medical Publishers (Chicago, IL), 1986.

(Translator) J.E. Hamou, Hysteroscopy and Microhysteroscopy: Text and Atlas, Appleton & Lange (Norwalk, CT), 1991.

(With J.A. Collins) Unexplained Infertility, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1992.

(With A.G. Gordon) Practical Laparoscopy, Blackwell Scientific Publications (London, England), 1993.

(With A.G. Gordon) Practical Hysteroscopy, Blackwell Scientific Publications (London, England), 1993.

(With V. Gomel) Diagnostic and Operative Gynecologic Laparoscopy, Mosby (St. Louis, MO), 1995.

Contributor to professional journals and periodicals, including Pacific Yachting, West Coast Yachting, and 48 Degrees North. Author of monthly medical humor columns "En Passant," 1989-1999, "Medicine Chest," 1990-94, and "Taylor's Twist," 1993-2002. Book reviewer for Stitches: The Journal of Medical Humour. Editor-in-chief, Snakes Alive: The Journal of the Belfast Medical School, 1962-63, and Canadian Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 1991-2001. Senior editor, The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada: The First Fifty Years, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1994. Associate editor of several professional journals, including Journal of Reproductive Medicine, International Journal of Fertility, Human Reproduction, and Canadian Journal of Surgery.

ADAPTATIONS:

Film rights to Pray for Us Sinners have been purchased by Captive Entertainment.

SIDELIGHTS:

Patrick Taylor practiced medicine in an Northern Irish village with many similarities to Ballybucklebo, the fictional setting of his novel An Irish Country Doctor, which was originally published in Canada as The Apprenticeship of Doctor Laverty. The novel is, in fact, based on journals Taylor kept during his early years of medical practice. While carrying on a distinguished career as a doctor, Taylor also proved himself as a writer, publishing several textbooks, humor columns in professional journals, and even a book of short stories and a novel prior to An Irish Country Doctor, the first book in a projected four-volume series.

The book's main character, Barry Laverty, is a naive young graduate of medical school, who takes a job as a physician's assistant in Ballybucklebo, a small town in Northern Ireland. Unlike most of his classmates, Laverty did not seek conventional success, but was attracted instead to the beauty and seeming tranquility of the backwater town. Laverty's recent medical studies and modern practices are a world away from medicine as it is practiced by his employer, Dr. Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly. As the book progresses, Laverty does realize that he has much to learn from the older doctor, as well as some things to teach. A subplot follows Laverty's romance with Patricia, an engineering student. A Kirkus Reviews writer found the plot "a bit thin," but described the book as one "with likable characters and atmospheric dialogue." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly warned of an "occasional whimsy overload," but added that despite that, "Taylor's novel makes for escapist, delightful fun."