David Porter CV

PERSONAL

Name: David Robert Lester Porter
Address and telephone/fax number, click here.
Date and place of birth: 10 August 1945, Bootle, Lancashire, England UK.
Nationality: British.
Marital status: married, to Tricia.
Two daughters, Eleanor (24) and Lauren (17).

EDUCATION

Birkenhead School, Cheshire - 1957-1964
Liverpool School of Librarianship - 1966-1968
University of Liverpool - 1971-1974
Postgraduate  Research, University of Liverpool, registered 1974

Educational Qualifications:
Associateship of the Library Association (A.L.A.) July 1969
(Overall merit with distinction in music bibliography)
B.A. English, July 1974, University of Liverpool
(First Class Honours)
(University Examiner's prize in Eighteenth-Century Literature, July 1973) 

CAREER HISTORY

Left school to work in Birkenhead Public Libraries, while at the same time studying on sandwich course at Liverpool School of  Librarianship to  gain qualification as Chartered Librarian (A.L.A.). On qualifying, entered Widnes Public Libraries (1969-1971) as Reference and Local History  Librarian with responsibilities in music library.

While at Widnes, was  appointed Visiting Lecturer in Music Bibliography and Librarianship at Liverpool  Polytechnic. Taught weekly classes 1969-1972. By then had entered University of Liverpool, gaining an English degree and subsequently  going on to postgraduate  research in eighteenth-century Evangelical literature.

On leaving University, took short-term contract in the Information and Research Department, Confederation  of Health Service  Employees, Head Office. Then was appointed Book Editor with Scripture Union Publishing (subsequently Ark Publishing). In 1980, left SU to begin  freelance career as author/editor. Today I work for a number of publishers  on a wide range of editorial projects as well as writing my own books.
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PUBLICATIONS, ETC

Articles: many articles and reviews in a variety of magazines, including Third Way (monthly columnist), The International Indian, Today, Christian Family, Electronics  Today, Arts Alive Merseyside, Computer  Trade Weekly, Christian Update, Christian Bookseller, Amateur Photographer, Strait, Ship of Fools, Impact, Christian News World, Evangelicals Now (monthly columnist), etc.

Plays:Blacklight He Goeth,  one-act play, Birkenhead One-Act Play Festival 1969. Bad Angel, produced by Upstream 1976.

Poetry:Every Good Girl's Big Book of Dragons (1973), A  Porter Grab-bag (1974), Tales From the Bedlam Hospital (1975), Songs for the New Elizabethans (1988). I have also written several hymns, one of which - 'Let us for ever praise him' - has appeared in Songs of Worship (1980) and hymnbooks in various parts of the world.

Broadcasting: Occasional contributions to radio and TV including See You Sunday, Lighten our Darkness, Soundings, Contact, TV-AM, Jimmy Young Programme, Choices,  Hibbert Lecture discussion panel (BBC Radio 4), Your Vicar Wouldn't Like It (BBC London), All Things Considered (BBC Wales), Shalom (HCJB World Radio), and Radio Ulster; many items for local stations such as BBC Radio Surrey and Premier Radio, London. I was Question Editor for Premier's radio quiz  programme, The Word in Question.

Lectures: I have lectured to many groups, including young wives' groups, teacher's conferences, college C.U.'s etc. I gave one of the six 1984 London Lectures in Contemporary Christianity (general subject : 'Art in Question' - six Christian perspectives on art. My lecture was on the subject of television and video). I also contributed a lecture on 'Violence in the media' to the 1987 London Lectures, on Violence, and edited the 1994 London Lectures on broadcasting published in 1997 as The  Word on the Box. I have read papers at various professional conferences, e.g. I was invited to deliver a paper at the 1995 biennial H M Prison Chaplains' Conference at Leeds University, was invited to read a  paper of my choice on Children and the Media at a Conference in 1996 at the Islamic Academy, Cambridge, and  was invited to read a paper at a Seminar on the Family organised by Leeds University in March 1998. I have  lecturered many times at the London Institute of  Contemporary Christianity (Christian Impact), and have been an occasional lecturer in Media Studies at Kingston College of Further Education. I have led many  creative writing courses, for groups ranging from the general public to specialist groups such as teachers. In Summer 1993 I preached the evensong sermon at  Oriel College, Oxford, on the subject 'The Moral World of Soap Opera',  and in 1994 was invited to preach on the same subject at Christ's College Cambridge  evensong. My interest in Eastern Europe has led to leading writing seminars in Budapest, Hungary and to being one of two lecturers in a  week-long Christian  publishers' conference in St Petersburg, Russia.

Documentary: Created text for several documentary photographic exhibitions by Tricia Porter, including Liverpool 8, Some Liverpool Kids, and Selborne, a Photographic Portrait.
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BOOKS

DP authored:The Media : a Christian point of view (1974); Malcolm Muggeridge,  Disciple of Christ (1983); Through the Eyes of a Child (1983, with Tricia Porter); Danger : Children at Play (1985, largely written and researched by David Porter); Mother  Teresa : the Early Years (1986); So Much More (A history of the Merseyside Assemblies Camps, 1986); Children at Risk (1986, 2nd rev. edn 1987); User's Guide to the Media (October 1988); The Man who was Q - biography of Charles Fraser-Smith, missionary, farmer and the original of 'Q' in the James Bond films (1989); Children at Play (1989); Bamboo in Winter (the novelisation of the film, 1992); Go  Deliver! (the story of Blythswood International Family Relief in Eastern Europe, 1992); Hallowe'en  - Treat or Trick? (1993); Back to Basics: The Anatomy of a Slogan (1994); He Changed Them (Ten Christian lives, 1995); The Vienna Passage (novel, 1995). (The latter is the first of a proposed quartet of novels and the second, The Maps of Hatred, is in progress). Children at Risk (expanded and revised compendium of the two Kingsway titles), 1998. The Monarch Book of Sins and Virtues (anthology, 1999).

'Ghost-writing' (these books were written by David Porter, based on  extensive research and conversations with the subject of the book): In His Pathway (with William McCrea, Ulster politician and gospel singer, 1980); Freed for Life (with Rita Nightingale, who was convicted of drug smuggling in Bangkok, became a Christian in prison and was released three years later, 1982); Faith under Fire (with Harry Bagnall, vicar of Port Stanley during the Argentine invasion, 1983); Freed for Ever (with  Rita Nightingale, 1985); The Locust Years (with Jacqui Williams, ex-'Moonie' top fundraiser, 1987); The Four-Thousand Year War (with Charles Fraser-Smith, the original of 'Q' in the James Bond films, 1988); I Wanted the World (with Joshua Hui, converted drugs baron, 1990); With God, For the People (authorised ghost-biography of Bishop Laszlo Tokes, an instigator of the 1989 Romanian revolution, 1990); Arts  and Minds (with Nigel Goodwin, actor and founder of Arts Centre Group & Genesis Arts, 1993), The UK Maharajahs (with Ram Gidoomal, 1997), and the lecture on which it was based, Building on Success,  delivered by Ram Gidoomal at the Royal Society of Arts March 1997. Other projects are under discussion. In 1999, The Locust Years (see above) was republished in a cheap edition.

Joint authorship:Four Million Reasons to Care (with Peter Elsom, 1985) (a study of unemployment and how to help); Art in Question (Marshalls, 1987) (co-editor, with Tim Dean; contributed one of six chapters; book is the revised text of the 1984 London Lectures). I was the writer working with two researchers to compile the official history of Brook Street Bureau of Mayfair (1996, in production). I wrote a substantial part of the text of The Bible Chronicle (Eagle, 1997). Over  the Bent World: 24Poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins, commentary and notes by David Porter, photographs by Tricia Porter (November 1999) is the first of a  series  of six.

Editorial projects (selected): These include The Revised Authorised Version (1982, I anglicised entire Old Testament); Tom Sine, Mustard  Seed Conspiracy (1985, I anglicised and substantially revised and updated the US edition for the UK market, rewriting two chapters completely); Keswick Convention, edited annual volume of addresses since 1978, and conceived and edited the anthology Keswick Gold (1990); since 1993, similarly edited the annual volume of the Spring Harvest/Word Alive conference; Danger: Children at Play (1986, Evangelical Alliance - 8-page leaflet on fantasy games etc. - largely researched and wrote, over 100,000 copies sold); The  Study of Anglicanism (SPCK 1988, ed. Stephen Sykes) editorial assistant, indexer and advisor; 'All Souls Ministry' series (Marshalls 1986), transcribed and edited sermons from All Souls Langham Place; From  the Lips of Children (Hodder and Stoughton, edited Richard Wurmbrand's collection of children's sayings); Caring and Campaigning (Marshalls 1990, edited and  prepared for the press Raymond Johnston’s last book - on public morality -  based on lecture material); and I have edited critical work on the Apostolic Fathers  and on Denys the Areopagite for Geoffrey Chapman (Cassell) Ltd. I have contributed a number of articles to the Oxford Companion to  Twentieth-Century Literature in English,  including those on William Golding, John Fowles, C.S. Lewis and the Liverpool Poets; the article on Mother Teresa to the IVP New Dictionary of Pastoral Theology and Ethics,  and a substantial revision of the article on 'The Bible' to the World Book Encyclopaedia. I have written the novel of Bamboo in Winter, a film on  Christians in Communist China, produced by Open Doors  International. I was commissioned by Kingsway to produce a combined edition of Children at Risk and Children at Play to replace stocks of both books lost in the Carlisle warehouse fire in 1990. In 1986 I worked briefly as freelance editor of the newsletter of the Management Development Group of the Commonwealth Secretariat. In 1988 I became editorial and publishing consultant to DC Associates, a London-based family therapy organisation. I was also Review Editor of Christian News World (Herald House). I have been involved as consultant in several major reference book projects. I have acted as editorial assistant/consultant to a number of projects including the Kingfisher  Children's Bible (1993) and have been invited by the Bishop of Ely to advise on ordinand's dissertations. A number of my books have appeared in several languages (see appendix to this CV).
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PUBLICITY

I am willing to be interviewed by journalists and broadcasters as necessary. 

PERSONAL INTERESTS

Walking, painting, computers; travel; anything to do with London; book-collecting; music; military history. 

LITERARY AWARDS

Freed for Life (see 5 above) was voted Christian Book of the Year in 1983.With God, for the People was chosen as Scripture Union's 'Book of the Month' February 1991. Hallowe'en - Treat or Trick? was chosen as Scripture Union's 'Book of the Month' October 1993. Back  to Basics was chosen as Wesley Owen's 'Book of the Month' August 1994.
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ORGANISATIONS etc

I am a member of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity and of the Royal Commonwealth Society. I have been a member of the  Editorial  Advisory Board of Third Way magazine and was for ten years a Director of the Arts Centre Group. I am very committed to the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (Christian Impact), and lecture there regularly. I sat on the Editorial Advisory Board of OM Publishing until it was disbanded. I am also involved in various ways with the Greenbelt Arts Festival, and was a speaker at the 1988 FLEZO festival in Holland. I am a participant in The Gospel and Our Culture,  a project led by Bishops Hugh Montefiore and Lesslie Newbigin and Dr H.D. Beeby, and its successor The Gospel and Public Truth. I live next door to the English  branch of L'Abri  Fellowship, and am involved with the work there as often as possible, lecturing frequently and counselling students as required. From October  1989 I have been involved with various student Christian initiatives in  Hungary and Romania - I lectured in the University on views of God in modern English  fiction - and with my wife and a friend set up a small charity 'Children at Risk - Romania', for the support of several small  institutions in central Romania. My  frequent visits to Romania in 1990 in connection with that project and With God, for the People have led to a close involvement with the Hungarian Reformed Church in  both countries and a number of specific projects (including publishing consultations) with church workers in Eastern Europe. I have become involved with the  plight of ethnic minorities in Eastern Europe and in April 1991 visited  Bucharest for a programme of interviews and discussions on the basis of With God, for the People.  I have also been joint leader of a Christian Publisher's conference in St Petersburg, Russia, organised by Lion  Publishing.
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FOREIGN AND OTHER EDITIONS OF DAVID PORTER UK TITLES

Mother Teresa: the Early Years
USA : Eerdmans
Finland : Werner Soderstrom
Holland : J. H. Gottmer
Germany : Neue Stadt
Italy : Citta Nuova
Also : UK : Clio Press Large Print Edn.
USA : Xavier Society for the Blind, Talking Book (3 x cassette)

Freed for Life
USA : Tyndale House
France : Sator
Norway : Logos
Finland : RV-Kirjat (Ristin Voitto)
Sweden : [publisher not known, UK publisher lost records (!)]
W. Germany : [publisher not known, ditto]
Holland : Ark

Children at Risk (1986)
USA : Crossway
Italy : Sovera Multimedia

Children at Risk (1998)
Germany : Christliche Verlagsgesellschaft Dillenburg

Malcolm Muggeridge : Disciple of Christ
USA : IVP

User's Guide to the Media
Korea: IVP (contract signed but project in abbeyance)
Germany: I understand that Brockhaus had an option and planned to publish.

The Man Who Was Q
UK : Torch Trust for the Blind (5 x cassette)

With God, For the People
USA : Crossway Books
Norway : Lunde Forlag
Norway (KABB Production: 6 x cassette)
Finland : Kirjanelio
Sweden : Rask & Rask
Germany : Brockhaus
Holland : Groen en Zoon
Hungary : Novatrade
UK film contract with Picture Palace Films  now lapsed for political reasons.

I Wanted the World
Malaysia : 3,000 copies imported of UK Hodder edition (1,000  copies sold in
one week); negotiations  were in progress with Malaysian and Chinese language publishers.
Norway : Lunde Forlag Comic Book edition (UK) in negotiation.

The Vienna Passage
USA : Crossway Books
Germany : Brunnen
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