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David Brooks’ Life

David Brook’s Life

David H M Brooks was born on the 27th June 1940, the second son of Alexander Brooks of Carluke, Lanarkshire. He graduated from Glasgow University in 1962 and went on to Balliol College, Oxford where he was awarded a Diploma in Social Anthropology in 1963. The next four years were interspersed with research trips to Iran and efforts to make contact with the Bakhtiari nomads in the south-west of the country. He was accompanied by his wife, Marianne. Marianne was a nurse who established a medical clinic in the region and worked in a Tehran hospital during their visits.

Whilst in Iran he almost died from Cholera and was later almost killed when, in 1966, a car ploughed into the one in which he was sitting. As a result of the latter, he lost his spleen, part of a lung and severely damaged his diaphragm. This compromised his health for years to come.

David Brooks in a vineyard
David in a vineyard

His misfortunes in the field were somewhat legendary. Bob Simpson recalled David telling the story of how, recently returned from the field, he had bumped into Evans-Pritchard in the Oxford Institute library. No sooner had they launched into conversation, Evans-Pritchard put his arm around David’s shoulder and said ‘Dear boy, do you mind if we move out of the stacks just in case anything falls on us’.

He was appointed lecturer in Anthropology of the Middle East at Durham’s newly formed Anthropology Department in 1968 and taught at Durham for over two decades. During this time he established himself as an inspirational and invigorating teacher and, in the words of one colleague at the time, ‘a true intellectual’.

David and his wife Marianne
David and Marianne, Iran, circa mid 1960’s

He was well known for spending evenings and sometimes the entire night before a lecture, preparing new and deeply thought-provoking material. He delivered this material with an engaging mix of authority and humour, and mostly from memory. Judith Okely, a colleague in the 1970s described how some students would go down to the banks of the River Wear to just sit with their heads spinning after his lectures. His appeal was puzzling to some and it was suggested that on occasion, colleagues would try and listen outside his seminars in order to understand his draw.

In 1986 David was diagnosed with lung cancer and had to have one of his lungs removed. It was ‘sods law’ as he put it that the lung removed was his ‘good’ lung and he was left with the lung that had already been badly damaged in the earlier car crash. Also being a heavy smoker, he should have died long before he did but he was a man of remarkable spirit and tenacity. In spite of the operation he still managed to attend the degree event of one of his Ph.D. students a few days later. David was reliant on a ventilator for the last few years of his life. Despite this he always ensured he had plenty of oxygen available when friends came round to talk.

David Brooks died on 29th April 1994 at the age of 53, a few years after his wife Marianne passed away. He left behind two sons, Ruaridh and Robb. David also left behind several generations of students who were inspired by his passion for anthropology and his highly original style of pedagogy. He could be bombastic and mischievous but he could also be thoroughly unpretentious and sensitive to others, and especially his students. Despite the pain and discomfort he suffered in his last few years, he retained a wry sense of humour to the very end.

Professor Judith Okely, a colleague of David’s at Durham and life-long friend, wrote this obituary for the Guardian after David passed away:

Read full text of ‘Dancing with the Bakhtiari’ (The Guardian, May 1994)

Read about David Brooks’ Academic career