Ruary Mackenzie Dodds

WRITER

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Ruary has published four books, two of which, Luc's War and Luc's War- Desert Gold are WW2 novels featuring Luc de Fontenac and Odile Molina. The story begins as France falls in 1940. Luc is a Lieutenant in the French Army, and Odile is running a textile factory. A third novel to complete the trilogy is planned.

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The third book is Dorigen, a childrens' story about the adventures of a Bronze Age princess and her involvement in the construction of stone circles. The fourth is Poet-Sight, a collection of poems written over the course of a lifetime.

 

The highly-successful publisher, SARABAND, have published two of Ruary’s books: The Dragonfly Diaries, the story of what happened to Ruary after a dragonfly landed on his shirt and how it entirely changed his life. And, in conjunction with his wife, Kari de Koenigswarter, The Dragonfly-Friendly Gardener, a simple guide as to how to attract dragonflies to your garden.​

 

​Ruary is also the author of the 180-page fully-illustrated Aberfeldy, The History of a Highland Community, published by Watermill Books, Aberfeldy, Scotland. The Aberfeldy valley has been a crossroads throughout Scottish history and this is its story.

 

He is a published poet and short story writer. Another book Ruary's Stories is due to be published in 2024

 

All his books are available from Amazon and from Bookshops.

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Go to WRITER and WRITER GALLERY for more information.

 

DRAGONFLIES

Ruary has worked on behalf of dragonflies since 1989. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society. For twenty years he was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Dragonfly Project (UK Registered Charity No 1046086). Its aim was to raise public awareness of the fascination, beauty and plight of dragonflies. This aim has now been taken on by The British Dragonfly Society. But Ruary’s work continues. Together with his wife, Kari, he has been involved in the creation of a British Dragonfly Society Hotspot at Exbury Gardens in Hampshire, and they are working on dragonfly survey and research work near Wellington, New Zealand.

 

Go to DRAGONFLIES and DRAGONFLY GALLERY for more information. 

 

TV-RADIO

In June 2010, Ruary was named as the BBC's Dragonfly Geek by Chris Packham during a BBC 'Springwatch' programme. Over the last twenty years, he has broadcast frequently on television and radio. In March 2014 he presented ‘Bewitched by Dragonflies’ in the Nature series on BBC Radio 4. 

 

He broadcast on Radio 4’s Mid-Week with Libby Purves in July 2014, and contributed to David Attenborough’s Sky TV film “Conquest of the Skies, Episode 1”, released in 2015. Click here to listen to the radio shows, and follow the link to the film.

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On the 4th of September 2016, BBC Radio 4 repeated a 'Living World' programme entitled ’The Dance of the Dragonfly' originally made at Ashton Water Dragonfly Sanctuary in 1994, now top-and-tailed by Chris Packham. And later that month, on Tuesday the 20th, BBC Radio 4 broadcast ‘Dragonfly’ in their 'Natural Histories' series. In both broadcasts, Ruary was the key figure. 'Dragonfly' was repeated again on the Sunday 21st June 2020. To listen tol'Dragonfly',  Google: BBC/Natural Histories/Dragonfly

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In April 2018, Ruary broadcast on Radio New Zealand 'Dragonflies -Masters of Flight' with Alison Ballance. To listen to this, Google: RadioNZ Dragonflies Master of Flight

 

Click here to listen to the 'Mid-Week with Libby Purves' radio show.

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Click here to watch the 'Conquest of the Skies' video.

 

Go to TV-RADIO and TV-RADIO GALLERY for more information.