Born on August 23, 1941 in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, Patrick Taylor of Bowen Island was brought up in Bangor, Northern Ireland. His birth in England was a result of his father serving in the RAF and being stationed there. ("Just because you're born in a stable does not necessarily make you a horse.") Taylor received his medical training in Northern Ireland and immigrated to Canada in 1970 to pursue a career in Academic medicine, moving to BC in 1991. Prior to his retirement in 2001 as Professor Emeritus, UBC, he was head of obstetrics and gynecology at Vancouver's St. Paul's Hospital for ten years. He served as editor of the Journal of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada and he has also written humour, sailing and opinion columns.

His first work of fiction, Only Wounded: Ulster Stories (1997) is a collection of short stories set during the 30 years of the Ulster troubles. His first novel, Pray for Us Sinners (2000), portrayed a violent political group in 1973-74 Belfast. British Army bomb disposal officer Marcus Richardson goes undercover in the Falls Road ghetto to identify the source of Provisional IRA bombs, fellow Ulsterman Davy MacCutcheon, who becomes disenchanted with the IRA when his handiwork is employed to kill civilians. He wants to leave Ireland with the woman he loves, but not before he undertakes a final mission. The lives of both men are entwined in a plot to kill the British Prime Minister. As Samuel Johnson said, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." After it was out of print for six years, Pray For Us Sinners was re-released in 2013.

In 2005, Taylor's light-hearted medical tale of manners, The Apprenticeship of Doctor Laverty (Insomniac 2004), was short-listed for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. In the Ulster village of Ballybucklebo in 1965, newly graduated Doctor Barry Laverty enters the general medical practice of his eccentric senior partner Doctor Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly, replete with oddball patients.

Also in 2005, Taylor published Now and at the Hour of Our Death (Insomniac Press, $21.95), a sequel to Sinners, in which a Vancouver-based character named Fiona Kavanagh, married to a doctor in British Columbia, is catapulted back into the Troubles with news of the jail breakout at the Maze prison.

BOOKS:

Only Wounded: Ulster Stories (Key Porter Books, 1997).
Pray For Us Sinners (Insomniac Press, 2000; Tor 2013).
The Apprenticeship of Doctor Laverty (Insomniac Press, 2004). Republished as An Irish Country Doctor (Forge, 2007, distributed by H.B. Fenn, 2007). ISBN: 0-765-31623-4.
Now and at the Hour of Our Death (Insomniac Press, 2005). 1-894663-99-3
An Irish Country Courtship (Forge 2010)
A Dublin Student Doctor (New York: Forge, 2011)
An Irish Country Wedding (2012).
An Irish Doctor in Peace and at War (2014)
9780765338365 • $27.50
An Irish Country Cookbook (Raincoast 2017) 978-0-765382795 $24.99

ALTERNATELY

An Irish Doctor in Peace and at War (2014)
9780765338365 • $27.50
An Irish Country Courtship • Patrick Taylor • Jan 17/12 • pb • 9780765321756
A Dublin Student Doctor • Patrick Taylor • Sep 4/12 • pb • 9780765326744
Fingal O'Reilly, Irish Doctor • Patrick Taylor • Oct 15/13 • cl • 9780765335241
Fingal O'Reilly, Irish Doctor • Patrick Taylor • Oct 7/14 • pb • 9780765335258
The Wily O'Reilly: Irish Country Stories • Patrick Taylor • Feb 4/14 • cl • 9780765338389
An Irish Country Village • Patrick Taylor • Jan 3/12 • mm • 9780765368256
An Irish Country Girl • Patrick Taylor • Sep 25/12 • mm • 9780765369277
An Irish Country Courtship • Patrick Taylor • Jun 3/14 • mm • 9780765377388
An Irish Country Wedding • Patrick Taylor • Oct 16/12 • cl • 9780765332172

[BCBW 2017] "Fiction" "Medicine"