Patrick Taylor

Born in 1941, Patrick Taylor was brought up in Bangor, Northern Ireland. He attended Queens University of Belfast from 1958-1964. Post-graduate training led to his qualifying as an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist in 1969.

His medical qualifications are:

MB., BCh., BAO. 1964, MD, by thesis 1985 -- Queens University Belfast

MRCOG 1969, FRCOG 1980 -- London

CRCSC 1970, FRCSC 1972 -- Canada

Since emigration to Canada in 1970, Patrick Taylor pursued a career in academic medicine, in reproductive endocrinology and human infertility. Apart from a short return to England from 1987-1989 to direct the Bourn Hall Clinic (the world’s first IVF clinic). He has stayed in the academic stream, working at the Universities of Calgary (1971-1987), Manitoba (1989-1991) and British Columbia, (1991-2001). He is Professor Emeritus of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of British Columbia and was Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver.

He published more than 100 original research papers and has co-authored six textbooks. He was Editor in Chief of the Journal of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, (JSOGC), 1990 to 1999.

He is a recipient of:

• US International Foundation for Studies in Reproduction; Chairman’s Award 1987.


• Society of Obstetricians and Gyanecologists of Canada; President’s Award 1998


• Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society, Lifetime Award of Excellence in Reproductive Medicine 2000

Writing has been an integral part of his life. An early interest in fiction had to take a back seat to scholarly works for 20 years, until he began to find outlets for his less academic endeavours when invited in 1989 to contribute to a monthly humour column, En Passant to the JSOGC. This became bi-monthly in 1990 with TF Baskett completing the work in alternate months.

The Complete Anthology of En Passant, 1989-1998, by TF Baskett and PJ Taylor was published by Rogers Media in 1999.

In 1990, the Journal of the Canadian Medical Association invited Taylor to begin contributing a humour column, "Medicine Chest", on a six-weekly basis.

Punch Digest for Canadian Doctors in 1993 changed its name to Stitches. The Journal of Medical Humour, asked Taylor to author a monthly column, "Taylor’s Twist," which ran continuously from 1991 to 2001. It was in Stitches that the Dr. O’Reilly stories first appeared.

Since 1996, he has regularly contributed humour and race reports to West Coast Yachting, Pacific Yachting, and 48 Degrees North, the Seattle based sailing magazine which carried his account of navigating a 50 foot sloop in a Victoria to Maui challenge. He has contributed op-ed pieces to the Vancouver Province and Globe and Mail. (Most recent, “Why Bill C-13 is bad law.” April 2 2003.)

In 1991 he unearthed some short stories, some begun as long ago as 1969. These stories and others which were written subsequently dealt with the lives of ordinary people caught up in the 30 years of internecine strife in Northern Ireland.

Only Wounded. Ulster Stories was published by Key Porter Books of Toronto in 1997.

His first novel is set in Belfast of 1974. It is a techno-thriller, Pray for Us Sinners (Insomniac Press. Toronto. 2000). The film rights of Pray for Us Sinners have been purchased by Captive Entertainment of Toronto.

A sequel, Now and in the Hour of Our Death was published by Insomniac Press in 2005.

In 2004, The Apprenticeship of Doctor Laverty (Insomniac Press) appeared and was short listed for a BC Books Fiction Prize. Tom Doherty and Associates of New York bought this work and republished it as An Irish Country Doctor. It achieved New York Times best seller status in both hard back (2007) and trade paper (2008) editions. The hard cover edition was a Book of the Month Club Novel of the Month in March 2007. The trade paper edition also became a Canadian best seller. It is being translated into Dutch, German, and Spanish and has been or will be condensed by Readers Digest in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Brazil, and Finland.

The sequel, An Irish Country Village, was published in February 2008 and the third in the series, An Irish Country Christmas, will be released in November 2008. All three will be published in Ireland and the UK by Brandon Books, Dingle.

Taylor, now living in Cootehall, Co Roscommon, Republic of Ireland with his partner, award winning oil painter Dorothy Tinman, is presently working on the fourth book in the series.