About

Robin Derricourt is a British / Australian author, historian, archaeologist and publisher.

He studied archaeology at the University of Cambridge and gained his PhD from the same university. As an academic he taught archaeology to the first cohort of African students to study the subject in South Africa, and served as the Director of the Republic of Zambia’s National Heritage Commission, responsible for archaeological and historical sites.

After participating in archaeological excavations in Britain, Egypt and the USA Robin directed archaeological fieldwork and excavations in a number of areas of South Africa and Zambia, focussing especially on forager societies of the Later Stone Age and farming communities of the Iron Age. He is the author of books and numerous articles on African history and prehistory. His books include Beyond the Cape Frontier: studies in the history of the Transkei and Ciskei; Prehistoric Man in the Ciskei & Transkei; People of the Lakes:  archaeological studies in Northern Zambia;and Man on the Kafue: the archaeology and history of the Itezhitezhi area of Zambia.

Robin’s career in publishing included periods as African Studies publisher for Longman (part of Pearson Group) and senior editor then publishing director in humanities and social sciences for Cambridge University Press in the UK. He established the publishing programme of Cambridge University Press in Australia and was Group Director of Fine Arts Press before 14 years as Director and Chief Executive of University of New South Wales Press, the largest university press organisation in the southern hemisphere, with a programme in book publishing, book distribution and retail book selling. A regular writer on publishing issues his Ideas into Books was copublished as An Author’s Guide to Scholarly Publishing

He is an Honorary Professor of History at UNSW, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London since 1994, and in 2017 he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Robin and his artist wife Marguerite Derricourt live in Sydney.