Twigger, Robert 1964-

PERSONAL: Born 1964; two children. Education: Graduated from Oxford University.

ADDRESSES: Home—Oxford, England. Office—Orion Publishing Group, Orion House, 5 Upper St. Martin's Lane, London WC2H 9EA, England.

CAREER: Freelance journalist. Founder, Extinction Club (political party), c. 2001. Has also taught school in Japan and trained as a bullfighter in Spain.

AWARDS, HONORS: Poetry prize, Oxford University; Newdigate Prize for Poetry, 1985; William Hill Sports Book of the Year, and Somerset Maugham Award for Literature, both 1998, both for Angry White Pyjamas: A Scrawny Oxford Poet Takes Lessons from the Tokyo Riot Police.

WRITINGS:

Angry White Pyjamas: A Scrawny Oxford Poet Trains with the Tokyo Riot Police, Indigo (London, England), 1997, published as Angry White Pyjamas: A Scrawny Oxford Poet Takes Lessons from the Tokyo Riot Police, Perennial (New York, NY), 2000.

Big Snake: The Hunt for the World's Largest Python, Morrow (New York, NY), 1999.

The Extinction Club: A Mostly True Story about Two Men, a Deer, and a Writer, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 2001, published as The Extinction Club, Morrow (New York, NY), 2001, published as The Extinction Club: A Tale of Deer, Lost Books, and a Rather Fine Canary Yellow Sweater, Perennial (New York, NY), 2003.

Being a Man in the Lousy Modern World, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), 2002.

Contributor to anthologies, including INPOPA Anthology 2002, and to periodicals, including Esquire, Maxim, London Daily Telegraph, and Financial Times.

ADAPTATIONS: Angry White Pyjamas has been adapted to film for Mirmax; Big Snake was filmed for television.

SIDELIGHTS: Robert Twigger, recipient of the 1985 Newdigate Prize for Poetry, is the author of such works as Angry White Pyjamas: A Scrawny Oxford Poet Trains with the Tokyo Riot Police and The Extinction Club: A Mostly True Story about Two Men, a Deer, and a Writer. In Angry White Pyjamas Twigger chronicles his adventures as a martial arts student in Tokyo, Japan. Years after winning the Newdigate, Twigger found himself adrift, eking out a living as a schoolteacher while sharing a dingy Tokyo apartment with a pair of irritating roommates. According to Spectator critic James Delingpole, Twigger "decides to reclaim his manhood by enrolling in the notoriously tough senshusei (specialist) course at the Yoshinkan aikido school. It turns out to be a scarily masochistic exercise." In the months that followed, Twigger and his classmates, including members of the Tokyo riot police, suffered through a brutal training regimen. Though Angry White Pyjamas could have become "tediously, self-regardingly macho," noted Delingpole, the author's "cynicism and dry sense of humor come to the rescue."

Angry White Pyjamas received the Somerset Maugham Award for Literature and was named the William Hill Sports Book of the Year. Critics praised Twigger's descriptions of the martial arts rituals, as well as his observations about life in Tokyo. "There are … plenty of amusing insights into the weirdness of Japanese culture," Delingpole observed. Reviewing Angry White Pyjamas in the London Observer, Martin Bright stated that Twigger's "fine eye for eccentricities make this an entertaining travelogue."

In Big Snake: The Hunt for the World's Largest Python, Twigger recounts his attempt to win the Roosevelt Award, given to anyone who captures a live snake that measures more than thirty feet long. Twigger's search takes him to the jungles of Indonesia, where he encounters a host of colorful, enigmatic characters. According to Tahir Shar, writing in Geographical, "Big Snake is really about the lust for true adventure. Robert Twigger's masterful tale is a rare blend of savage reality and poetic finesse."

The milu, a rare and unusual species of deer, is the focus of The Extinction Club. Originally the exclusive stock of Chinese emperors, the deer were exported to France in the 1860s by Pere David, a Basque missionary. Within decades, however, the milu faced extinction, the victims of flooding, warfare, and poor conservation efforts. Fortunately, Herbrand Russell, an eccentric British royal, had carefully nurtured the deer on his estate, thus preserving the species.

"Twigger brings a mordant wit to this examination of an endangered species and the act of writing about it," observed Booklist reviewer Nancy Bent, and Spectator critic Graham Stewart wrote that The Extinction Club "is nominally about Pere David's deer, but given half a chance Robert Twigger's fast and original mind ranges over wider terrain. His subject matter is as much the frailty and endurance of knowledge as the fate of rare species."

In Being a Man in the Lousy Modern World, Twigger examines how contemporary society has eroded the ways in which male identity can be expressed. In the work, Twigger reflects on the birth of his son, a family barbecue, and several of his most daring exploits, which include bullfighting and rafting across the Thames River. "Twigger is right to suggest that masculinity is struggling to find new proving grounds for itself," observed Robert Winder in New Statesman, who asked, "But is there any point in pursuing challenges that were relevant to another time, another place?" Manchester Guardian critic Steven Poole expressed disappointment with the book, concluding that Twigger's "chatty musings" are little more than "a series of disconnected jottings," and Winder remarked that the author's "rejection of 'lousy' modern life seems both sentimental and conventional, and spoils what is, in all other respects, a sweet, alert, and funny book."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Twigger, Robert, Angry White Pyjamas: A Scrawny Oxford Poet Trains with the Tokyo Riot Police, Indigo (London, England), 1999.

Twigger, Robert Big Snake: The Hunt for the World's Largest Python, Morrow (New York, NY), 1999.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 2002, Nancy Bent, review of The Extinction Club: A Mostly True Story about Two Men, a Deer, and a Writer, p. 1669.

Geographical, May, 1999, Tahir Shar, review of Big Snake: The Hunt for the World's Largest Python, p. 64.

Guardian, October 26, 2002, Steven Poole, review of Being a Man in the Lousy Modern World, p. 31.

Independent, January 12, 2002, David Vincent, "Why Real Men Read Carp Monthly," p. 10.

Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2002, review of The Extinction Club, p. 643.

Los Angeles Times, July 16, 2002, Bernadette Murphy, review of The Extinction Club, p. E3; August 25, 2002, review of The Extinction Club, p. 10.

New Statesman, February 4, 2002, Robert Winder, review of Being a Man in the Lousy Modern World, p. 50.

New York Times, August 1, 2002, Janet Maslin, review of The Extinction Club, p. E8.

New York Times Book Review, July 21, 2002, Robert Eisner, review of The Extinction Club, p. 17.

Observer (London, England), November 16, 1997, Martin Bright, review of Angry White Pyjamas: A Scrawny Oxford Poet Takes Lessons from the Tokyo Riot Police, p. 18.

Publishers Weekly, May 20, 2002, review of The Extinction Club, p. 55.

Spectator, November 29, 1997, James Delingpole, review of Angry White Pyjamas; May 22, 1989, Philip Glazebrook, review of Big Snake: The Hunt for the World's Largest Python, p. 31; June 23, 2001, Graham Stewart, review of The Extinction Club, p. 38.

Time, August 26, 2002, Lev Grossman, review of The Extinction Club, p. 60.

Times Literary Supplement, July 2, 1999, Harry W. Greene, review of Big Snake, p. 28.

Washington Post Book World, September 1, 2002, Michael Olmert, review of The Extinction Club, p. 10.