Owen Dudley Edwards FRSE, FRHistS, FSA (Scot.) was initially led to his subjects by something he holds in common with them; he too is an Irish Catholic contributing to higher learning in Edinburgh. Born in Dublin of a distinguished literary family, Owen Dudley Edwards has earned a growing reputation as scholar, author and journalist.
He is Hon. Fellow in History at Edinburgh University, where he taught from 1968. His previous works include Celtic Nationalism; Mind of an Acitivist: James Connolly; 1916 The Easter Rising and P.G. Wodehouse: a Critical and Historical Study. More recently he has written The Quest for Sherlock Holmes: a Biographical Study of Arthur Conan Doyle; Macaulay; Eamon de Valera, and has edited The Fireworks of Oscar Wilde; A Claim of Right for Scotland; and (as general editor) The Oxford Sherlock Holmes (9 vols.). His most recent monograph is British Children’s Fiction in the Second World War, his most recent collaboration (co-edited with Jamie Maxwell) is Why Not? Scotland, Labour and Independence, he contributes a regular column to the Glasgow magazine The Drouth, and writes for the Edinburgh University Journal of Politics and Sociology Scottish Affairs.