BIO

Robert Silman

Robert was educated at St Paul’s School in London and then attended university in Paris where he obtained a degree in Philosophy (Licence ès Lettres) at the Sorbonne as a student of Jean-Francois Lyotard and Jacques Derrida. He returned to London and obtained a First Class Honours degree in Biochemistry (BSc) and went on to qualify as a Doctor of Medicine (MB BS) at the Middlesex Hospital.

He practiced as a hospital doctor for a year followed by full time medical research, eventually as Senior Lecturer Hon Consultant, at St Bartholomew’s Hospital funded by the Ford Foundation, MRC and Wellcome Trust.

He gained a Ph.D. for his research and has authored scores of research publications in the major scientific research journals, principally on the role of the pituitary hormones ACTH and endorphin in pregnancy and parturition, and the pineal hormone melatonin in growth and puberty.

In addition to his scientific research publications he has also published articles on the social and ethical issues of medicine, and co-wrote a political thriller under the pseudonym Ben Abro (originally published by Jonathan Cape in the UK and William Morrow in the US, republished in April 2001 by the University of Nebraska Press).

His work with medical students using role play led him to an association with RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) and to become, after retirement from medicine, a theatre producer.

He produced Joan Rivers at the Edinburgh Festival (2001), Theatre Royal Haymarket (2002), and a UK and Irish tour (2004). As well as producing in the UK, he has also produced in the USA at the Beckett Theatre in New York and a workshop at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. His experience with theatre led him to propose a novel method of investment to improve the quality of productions and minimize risks. He presented the overall concept at a seminar Introducing Wall Street to Broadway at Columbia University New York, in September 2004 (hosted jointly by the Faculty of Arts and the Business School).

For 20 years he presided, with Jean-Claude Carrière, the Rencontres Internationales de l’Audiovisuel Scientifique, an annual month long festival at the Eiffel Tower in Paris honouring media contributions to the arts and sciences.

Today he is occupied with The Bard of Pittsburgh to remedy the under acknowledged genius of black theatre. Keep Publishing Independent to counter the dominance of six conglomerates over the publishing industry, and Doctors Club as the test bed for other digital Club communities.

Publications

Science

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Fiction

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Non Fiction

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The Bard of Pittsburgh African Legacy Theatre

Me? It was while attending a workshop in Chicago at Steppenwolf in 2000 that I took pot luck with a show at the Goodman theatre. It was August Wilson’s ‘King Hedley II’. To my shame, I had never heard of August Wilson until that evening, but I was so impressed by the show that I looked out for his work whenever performed thereafter; and have had the immense privilege of seeing most of his cycle of ten plays which describe the experience of African Americans across ten decades.

Keep Publishing Independent! is a charity created to support the future of independent publishing.

Independent publishing is under threat: tight budgets, limited reach, shrinking space. Keep Publishing Independent! funds the risk, resolve, and resources needed to push back.

The first internet co-op!

Doctors Club is freely available for doctors registered with the GMC, active or retired, licensed to practise or not. The site is also freely available for medical students studying in the UK.