For the brigadier general of the same name, see Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford. For further people of the same name, see Earl of Longford.

Thomas Francis Dermot Pakenham (born August 14, 1933) is an Anglo-Irish historian and author of several prize winning non-fiction books. He is also known as Thomas Pakenham, Lord Longford, the 8th Earl of Longford. He does not use the title and did not use his courtesy title before succeeding his father. He is the son of Frank Pakenham and Elizabeth Longford. His sister Antonia Fraser is also a writer.

Biography

Thomas Pakenham was born in 1933 and educated in Dublin, Oxford and York. After graduating from Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1955 he travelled to Ethiopia, a trip which is described in his first book The Mountains of Rasselas.

On returning to England he worked on the editorial staff of the Times Educational Supplement, the Sunday Telegraph, and later The Observer.

As of 2005, he lives in London and County Westmeath, Ireland where is chairman of the Irish Tree Society and custodian of Tullynally Castle.

Bilbliography

Books authored or co-authored by Thomas Pakenham in reverse chronological order:

• Books about trees
  • Remarkable Baobab (2004) ISBN 0297843737
  • Remarkable Trees of the World (2002) ISBN 0297843001
  • Meetings with Remarkable Trees (1996) ISBN 0297832557 (made into a radio and television series of the same name)
• Historical books
  • The Scramble for Africa (1991) ISBN 0349104492 (winner of the WH Smith Literary Award and the Alan Paton Award )
  • The Boer War (1979) ISBN 0349104662
  • The Year of Liberty: The History of the Great Irish Rebellion of 1798 ISBN 0679748024
  • The Mountains of Rasselas: Ethiopian Adventure ISBN 0297823698

External links

• Tullynally castle
• Queens University Belfast honour Thomas Pakenham