Frank McLynn

Francis James McLynn (born 29 August 1941), known as Frank McLynn, is a British author, biographer, novelist, historian and journalist.

He is known for biographies of Napoleon, Robert Louis Stevenson, Carl Jung, Richard Francis Burton and Henry Morton Stanley.

Early life and education McLynn was educated at the John Fisher School, Purley, and won an Open Scholarship in Classics to Wadham College, Oxford. Once at Oxford, McLynn switched to Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE). McLynn explained his choice by stating that "history and literature were my first loves, and I would always read them in future life, but I doubted that I would ever pick up a book on economics or philosophy again". This multi-disciplinary course formed part of McLynn's ambition to become a polymath.

Career McLynn entered the professional world as a journalist. He developed an interest in Latin America, and spent two years in Colombia as deputy director of the British Council, and a subsequent year in Argentina as a Parry/Ford Foundation Fellow. He was awarded a PhD in the early 1970s for a thesis on Argentina in the 1860s.

Prior to and during his career as a writer, McLynn worked in academic positions in the UK and USA.

Academic positions

Awards and nominations McLynn was shortlisted for the NCR Book Award for Carl Gustav Jung: A Biography