Lyall Watson

  Lyall Watson (born April 12, 1939) is a botanist, zoologist, biologist, anthropologist, ethologist, and author of many new age books, among the most popular of which is the best seller Supernature. Lyall Watson tries to make sense of natural and supernatural phenomena in biological terms. He is credited with the first published use of the term Hundredth Monkey in his 1979 book, Lifetide. It is a hypothesis that aroused both interest and ire in the scientific community and continues to be a topic of discussion over a quarter century later.

He has served as director of the Johannesburg, South Africa zoo, an expedition leader to various locales, a writer and producer for the BBC, and Seychelles commissioner for the International Whaling Commission.

In the late 1980s he presented Channel 4's coverage of sumo tournaments.

Watson lives and writes in Ireland.

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Education

Born in South Africa, Watson had an early fascination for nature in the surrounding bush, learning from Zulu and !Kung bushmen. Watson attended boarding school at Rondebosch Boys' High School in Cape Town, and in 1958 earned degrees in botany and zoology before securing an apprenticeship in palaentology under Raymond Dart, leading on to anthropological studies in Germany and the Netherlands. He has additional degrees in chemistry, geology, marine biology and ecology, indicating a broad range of interests. Watson earned a doctor of philosophy degree in ethology under Desmond Morris at London Zoo.

Writing career

Lyall Watson began writing his first book, Omnivore during the early 1960s while under the supervision of Desmond Morris at London Zoo, and has written more than 20 others.

Bibliography

• Omnivore: The Role of Food in Human Evolution (1972)
• Supernature: A Natural History of the Supernatural (1973)
• The Biology of Death: A Matter of Life and Death (1974)
• The Romeo Error (1974)
• Gifts of Unknown Things: An Indonesian Adventure (1976)
• Lifetide: a Biology of the Unconscious (1979)
• Whales of the World: A Field Guide to the Cetaceans (1981)
• Lightning Bird: An African Adventure (1982)
• Heaven's Breath: A Natural History of the Wind (1984)
• Bali Entranced: A Celebration of Ritual (1985) - published in Japanese only
• Dreams of Dragons: Essays on the Edge of Natural History (1986)
• Beyond Supernature: A New Natural History of the Supernatural (1986)
• The Water Planet: A Celebration of the Wonder of Water (1988)
• Neophilia: The Tradition of the New (1989)
• Sumo: A Guide to Sumo Wrestling (1989)
• The Nature of Things: The Strange Behaviour of Inanimate Objects (1990)
• Lasting Nostalgia: Essays Out of Africa (1992) - publishes in Japanese only
• Turtle Islands: Ritual in Indonesia (1995)
• Dark Nature: A Natural History of Evil (1995)
• Monsoon: Essays on the Indian Ocean (1996) - published in Japanese only
• Lost Cradle: A Collection of Dialogues (1997) - published in Japanese only
• Warriors, Warthogs, and Wisdom: Growing up in Africa (1997)
• Jacobson's Organ and the Remarkable Nature of Smell (2000)
• Elephantoms: Tracking the Elephant (2002)
• The Whole Hog: Exploring the Extraordinary Potential of Pigs (2004)

References

• WATSON, Lyall International Who's Who. accessed September 3, 2006.