Tony Pollard
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God's Holy Trouser's, not tickets again!
Male
44 years old
Glasgow, Scotland
United Kingdom
Last Login: 11/22/2009
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Tony Pollard's Interests
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| Music | To be frank I don't listen to half as much music as I used to. My first love has always been Genesis - for which I have been slagged off by friends and enemies alike since the early 1980s. I used to say 'obviously the peter gabriel period' but I recently saw them live on the reunion tour in Paris and thoroughly enjoyed them. Peter Gabriel obviously - I think I've seen him live about six times and was quite upset when I couldn't make any of his concerts this summer. Other than that a bit too much progressive rock in general (Yes, Jethro Tull etc.) I like quite a lot of stuff really - most of it after recommendations by more on the ball friends. Off the top of my head two that impressed recently were Candidate (their album Nuada is a fantastic folky thing inspired by the film the Wicker Man) and 'The Trials of Van Occupanther' by Midlake has to be the best album I've heard for ages - genius. Other than that...Manic Street Preachers, Nick Cave (Grinderman is excellent), Peter Hammill, Steely Dan etc. etc. | | Movies | The 39 Steps (Hitchcock version, though I have a soft spot for the Robert Powell version), The Hound of the Baskervilles (Basil Rathbone), Almost anything by Werner Herzog, The Man Who Would be King, I know Where I'm Going, If, Withnail and I, Quatermass and the Pit, The New World, Breaker Morant, The Long Good Friday, The Draughtsman's Contract, Once Upon A Time in the West, Stander (an instant classic which very few people seem to have seen - the township riot scene is amazing), Jaws, Billion Dollar Brain (not as good a story as the Ipcress File but Harry Palmer directed by Ken Russell - a brilliant sixties film), Get Carter, Live and Let Die (the first Bond film I saw at the cinema and definately the best Bond tune ever), V for Vendetta, Barry Lyndon, Botherhood of the Wolf, The Jason Bourne films - who would have believed the latest (and definately one of best) Bond movies would have stiff American competition - second one directed by a Brit though (Paul Greengrass is one of the best directors working today and I can't wait for next one). The Life Aquatic is one of the funniest films of the last twenty years. | | Books | I have to spend a lot of time reading non-fiction for research but still read as much fiction as I can. My long term favourites include John Steinbeck (Cannery Row is one of my favourite comic novels) and Graham Greene (I once had a dream that I met him in the street in Glasgow and he offered me the use of his typewriter in his conservatory). I like a good thriller and enjoy Len Deighton and Ian Fleming. I'm a big fan of Martin Cruz Smith - his Russian Renko detective novels (Gorky Park, Polar Star, Wolves Eat Dogs etc.) are in places so beautifully written they make a writer weep with envy. As a youngster I loved anything by Bruce Chatwin; the The Magus by John Fowles and Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain Fournier are two of the few books I've read more than once. Ian Sinclair writes about place, memory and the imagination like no one else, and Downriver is one of his best. Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein have both had a strong influence on my own literary imagination. Dan Brown has not. |
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Tony Pollard's Details
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| Status: | In a Relationship | | Hometown: | Glasgow | | Body type: | 5' 10" | | Zodiac Sign: | Taurus | | Smoke / Drink: | No / Yes | | Children: | I don't want kids | | Education: | Post grad |
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Tony Pollard's Blurbs |
About me:
I was born in Macclesfield in the north of England but moved to Oban in the Highlands of Scotland when I was about 13 after my dad had watched the movie of 'Ring of Bright Water' one too many times. I've been an archaeologist for most of my adult life and have held a variety of posts, but since February 2006 I've been Director of the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at Glasgow University. My years on the west coat must have had an influence because my PhD thesis was on prehistoric fishing in Scotland. It was all a little too abstract though and about eight years ago I began to combine my long-term interest in military history with my archaeological skills to investigate sites of battle and conflict. My first project was an exploration of 1879 Anglo-Zulu War sites in South Africa, which was when I first got to know historian Ian Knight (and yes, after watching 'Zulu' one too many times). Not long after that I was contacted by Optomen, a tv production company, and before I knew it was making a TV series for the BBC called 'Two Men in a Trench' which I co-presented with Neil Oliver who was an old university friend and flat mate. We did two series of the show, which for the first time introduced people to battlefield archaeology in Britain. The programmes helped to raise the profile of what was a new archaeological discipline and in 2006 resulted in the establishment of the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology. Not long before that I founded the Journal of Conflict Archaeology, along with another old friend and colleague Dr. Iain Banks. The Centre also provides the only post-graduate course in battlefied archaeology. One thing that I really love about being an archaeologist is the travel. I've worked in some of the remotest places in Scotland - spending weeks at a time on the island of St Kilda and since becoming involved with battlefields have worked in Libya, Paraguay, France and Belgium. Believe it or not I do have interests outside of archaeology, which include writing fiction. My first novel (at least the only one I've managed to finish) will be published by Penguin in September 2008. It's called 'The Minutes of the Lazarus Club' and is a thriller based around the life of the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Writing gives some discipline and purpose to my day dreams and I've just started work on my second novel (which I will also hopefully finish). I still do a little TV but having a face better suited to radio I'm quite happy to pursue the more academic side of my career.
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