Peter Bowler (lexicographer)


Peter Bowler is an Australian lexicographer and author of The Superior Person's Book of Words, The Superior Person's Second Book of Weird and Wondrous Words, and The Superior Person's Third Book of Well-Bred Words. He specializes in esoteric, arcane, archaic, and otherwise unusual words, which he has catalogued humorously in his three books, along with "real-life" situations in which such words might come in handy
A spare-time author, his main work lay in his forty years in education policy and management, in both public and private sectors. He was at various times: leader of Australian delegations to the Unesco/IBM World Conference on Public Education in Geneva and the Conference of Directors of Education in the South Pacific; member of Australian delegations to Commonwealth of Nations Education and Medical Conferences, Chairman of the Commonwealth of Nations Book Development Committee; member of the National Training Council and Australian Apprenticeship Advisory Committee; member of the Australian Council for Educational Research; member of Interim Councils for the Royal Military College and the National Maritime College; Australian representative on the OECD Education Committee and the International Council for Educational Media; Director of Further Education in the Australian Capital Territory; Director of the National Office of Youth Affairs; Deputy Principal of City International College, Sydney; Deputy CEO of St John Ambulance in Australia ; and Vice-President of the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology in Brisbane.
His books about words are published in the USA by David R Godine of Boston and in the UK by Bloomsbury of London. His other books have included: The True Believers ; The Pan paperback What a Way to Go; the crime novel Human Remains; The Creepy-Crawly and Your Child From One to Ten. He has also written and edited books on emergency care and its theoretical medical foundations. One or another book in the Superior Person’s series has been in print at all times since 1979.
He lives near Brisbane in Australia with his wife Diane, and when not writing collects old 78rpm records, wind-up gramophones, and old English pewter.

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