Andro Linklater

He was the youngest son of Eric Linklater, a poet and Marjorie MacIntyre, an arts campaigner. His brother is journalist Magnus Linklater and his sisters include Kristin Linklater.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/21/andro-linklater |title=Andro Linklater obituary |work=The Guardian |first=George |last=Gibson |date=21 November 2013 |access-date=3 January 2016}} His nephew is film actor Hamish Linklater.

He was educated at Belhaven Hill School, Winchester College and New College, Oxford, where he read Modern History. At the end of the 1960s he lived in the United States, but returned to Britain to teach in Scotland and London, before turning to writing after his father's death in 1974.

His book Measuring America led to a series of books on American history, about which he was an eloquent speaker.{{cite web|url=http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/whats_on/pritzker-military-presents/andro-linklater-fabric-america/ |title=Andro Linklater: The Fabric of America |publisher= Pritzker Military Museum & Library |date=21 June 2007 |access-date=3 September 2014}}

Linklater's book Why Spencer Perceval Had To Die focuses on the assassination of British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, looking at the conspiracy theories surrounding it, and revealing the historical context. Antony Beevor has called it "a beautifully written portrait".{{cite web|url=http://www.bloomsbury.com/Why-Spencer-Perceval-Had-to-Die/Andro-Linklater/books/details/9781408828403 |title=Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die |publisher=Bloomsbury |access-date=21 November 2013}}

His work appeared in Prospect Magazine,{{cite web|last=Linklater |first=Andro |url=http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2002/08/lifelibertyproperty/ |title=Life, liberty, property |publisher=Prospectmagazine.co.uk |date=20 August 2002 |access-date=21 November 2013}} The Spectator,{{cite web|url=http://www.spectator.co.uk/search/search.thtml?search=Andro%20Linklater&a=816&s=&t=&y= |title=Blog |work=The Spectator |access-date=21 November 2013}} The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Reader's Digest and Daily Mail.

Linklater was married to photographer Marie-Louise Avery and lived in rural Kent. He had a heart attack after a day of typically strenuous cycling while researching his next book on the island of Eigg, and died in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary a week later. His obituary in The Times said that "He took time to help aspiring writers, wrote eloquent prayers to be recited in his church, and regularly took up the cudgels on behalf of local causes."Andro Linklater, Obituary, The Times, 8 November 2013.

• {{cite book| title=Owning the Earth: The Transforming History of Land Ownership | publisher=Bloomsbury| date=2013| isbn=978-1-62040-289-4 }}
• {{cite book | title=An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkinson | publisher=Walker & Company | date=29 September 2009 | isbn=978-0-8027-1720-7 | url=https://archive.org/details/artistintreasone00link }}
• {{cite book | title=The Fabric of America: How Our Borders and Boundaries Shaped the Country and Forged Our National Identity | publisher=Walker & Co. | year=2007 | isbn=978-0802715333 | url=https://archive.org/details/fabricofamericah00link }}
• {{cite book | title=Measuring America: How an Untamed Wilderness Shaped the United States and Fulfilled the Promise of Democracy | publisher=Walker & Co | year=2002 | isbn=978-0-8027-1396-4 | url=https://archive.org/details/measuringamerica00link }}
• {{cite book| title=The code of love: the true story of two lovers torn apart by the war that brought them together| author=Andro Linklater| author2=Donald Hill| publisher=Doubleday| year= 2001| isbn= 978-0-385-50115-6 }}
• {{cite book| title=The code of love: a true story| publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson| year=2000| isbn=978-0-297-64358-6| url=https://archive.org/details/codeoflovetruest00link}}
• {{cite book| title=Wild People: Travels with Borneo's Head-Hunters | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YFyrUsfupSIC&q=Andro+Linklater| publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press| year= 1994| isbn=978-0-87113-477-6 }} (1st edition 1990)
• {{cite book| title=Compton Mackenzie: a life| publisher=B. Blackwell| year= 1988| isbn= 978-1-55786-010-1 }}
• {{cite book| title=An unhusbanded life: Charlotte Despard : suffragette, socialist, and Sinn Feiner| publisher= Hutchinson| year= 1980 }}
• {{cite book| title=Amazing Maisie and the Cold Porridge Brigade | url=https://archive.org/details/amazingmaisieco00link | url-access=registration | publisher=Pantheon Books| year= 1978| isbn= 978-0-394-94009-0 }}
• {{cite book| title=The Black Watch: the history of the Royal Highland Regiment| author=Eric Linklater| author2=Andro Linklater|publisher=Barrie & Jenkins| year= 1977 }}
• {{cite book| title=Why Spencer Perceval Had To Die: the Assassination of a British Prime Minister | url=https://archive.org/details/whyspencerpercev0000link_y0x8| url-access=registration | quote=Andro Linklater. | publisher=Bloomsbury| date= 10 May 2012| isbn= 978-1-4088-2840-3 }}

{{reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090715013409/http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/batt_review_of_linklater_on_measuring_america.html "Review of Andro Linklater's Measuring America",Cooperative Individualism]
• {{C-SPAN|1004506}}
• [http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/whats_on/pritzker-military-presents/andro-linklater-fabric-america/ Linklater discusses The Fabric of America] at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library

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Category:1944 births

Category:2013 deaths

Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford

Category:People educated at Winchester College

Category:People educated at Belhaven Hill School

Category:Scottish journalists

Category:Scottish non-fiction writers

Category:British military historians

Category:Linklater family