Oldham, Robert
Biography
Born in 1950 in Epsom, Surrey, England he lived in Alton, Hampshire near Jane Austen’s Chawton home. The author attended Cowplain Secondary, Waterlooville near the naval base of Portsmouth. He used the launderette opposite Charles Dickens’s birthplace. In December 1963 he immigrated to Canada on a Cunard liner from Liverpool to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Settling in Vancouver he attended secondary school in North Vancouver and then to U.B.C., where he studied History and English. During summers he worked as a lab technician for Rio-Tinto in the forests of northern B.C..
He began writing in 1974, teaching a creative writing course (Point Grey Recreation Centre). 1976-78 he lived in Toronto while attending the Faculty of Library Science, University of Toronto. His first published poem was in an anthology This is My Best (Coach House Press, 1977). During that summer he worked in the Royal Ontario Museum Library. In 1978 he moved to Hamilton and published a poetry chapbook The Primitive Gentleman. Two David Owlton mystery short stories (Hamilton Magazine 1979-1980), and chapbooks Angels at 11 O’Clock and otobe ing/land followed. In the 1980s-early 1990s Robert wrote articles and reviews (Canadian Monarchy Magazine, Berkwell’s Royal Year). In the 1990s he published various poems in anthologies and in 1996 wrote a short story which eventually became the first novel in a W.W. II alternative history series, Saving the King, published in 2001. In 1998 his short story ‘Killing Time’ was short-listed for the Commonwealth Short Story Award. In 2002 Standmar published Saving the King. In 2005 the second in the series, New Britain KZ1, was published, followed in 2008 the third in the series, Napoleon IV: 1943. The fourth in the projected seven-novel series, Go for a Soldier, was published in November 2009.
Robert Oldham is married with three children and is a librarian. He is formulating a book about living in two countries, Houses of the Heart.
Other Information
Related Websites or Blogs
Robert Oldham's books are available at Bryan Prince Bookseller
Published Work
2009. Go For a Soldier. Hamilton: Bryan Prince. (Fiction)
2007. Napoleon IV: Book Three of the Alternative History of World War Two. Hamilton: Raven Press. (Fiction)
2005. New Britain KZ1: Book Two of the Alternative History of World War Two. Hamilton: Raven Press. (Fiction)
2001. Saving the King : Book One of the Alternative History of World War Two. Hamilton: Raven Press. (Fiction)
1980. Otobe ing/land. Hamilton: Image Design and Print. (Poetry)
1979. Angels at 11 O’clock. Hamilton: Land of the Mind. (Poetry)
1978. The Primitive Gentleman, or, Frustrating a Knavish Trick on Wreck Beach, or, The Paradox of Enforcing the Vegetarian Edict. Hamilton: publisher unknown. (Poetry)
