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Nigel Hey

Goodreads Author

Born

Morecambe, The United Kingdom

Website

http://nigelhey.com

Twitter

nigelsplace

Genre

Biographies & Memoirs, Professional & Technical, Philosophy

Influences

My mother urged me to write when I was an ill child, and I read extens ...more

Member Since

August 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/plotinus

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Much of my career has been associated with science writing, the rest with other enterprises that we tend to lump together as various parts of “the media.” The media, then, are the subject of a fair amount of commentary in my latest book, Wonderment. Because it is a life story, it also includes some quite different subject material – living twin lives as an Englishman and an American; being always enticed by adventure and travel; cultivating a spiritual and philosophical life; bringing up a family; friendships with Native American people; and living since infancy with chronic asthma. There’s more about the book in my websites, http://www.nigelhey.com and http://www.troubador.co.uk/book_info.....

When people ask me why I decided to be a journa Much of my career has been associated with science writing, the rest with other enterprises that we tend to lump together as various parts of “the media.” The media, then, are the subject of a fair amount of commentary in my latest book, Wonderment. Because it is a life story, it also includes some quite different subject material – living twin lives as an Englishman and an American; being always enticed by adventure and travel; cultivating a spiritual and philosophical life; bringing up a family; friendships with Native American people; and living since infancy with chronic asthma. There’s more about the book in my websites, http://www.nigelhey.com and http://www.troubador.co.uk/book_info.....

When people ask me why I decided to be a journalist, or a writer, I reply simply that it is because I am curious, and being more specific would tie me down to a relatively narrow field. Writing, and the observation and research that supports it, satisfies my curiosity while never failing to fill me with even more wonder. The book explains how this happens to me, and suggests that many people hold back their own gifts for wonderment, missing out on some of the most precious gifts of life. As Albert Einstein said, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.”

I earned my first check as a writer at the age of 11, when a short story was accepted by the BBC for the Children’s Hour. I then moved with my parents from England to the United States and while in high school worked an old-fashioned “printer’s devil” and contributed part-time for other local newspapers. After getting a bachelor’s degree in mass communications I wrote for UPI in the States, then for newspapers in Bermuda and England, and finally launched my science writing career at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Here my job was to find nationally interesting articles in the wide variety of research being done by a lab of 10,000 employees, write them up, and spread the word. I've been consulting and writing books independently since 2001.

I am a native of Morecambe, Lancashire, England, and received my bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah. When I was about eight years old my mother announced that I would be a writer, and I have never strayed, nor wanted to stray, from that path. It’s too much fun. I live three months of the year in London and most of the rest in New Mexico. My next book will be a travel memoir set in New Mexico and Arizona.

I began working part-time for U.S. newspapers in my teens. I worked briefly for UPI after gaining a degree in mass communications, worked for two years at the daily Bermuda Mid-Ocean News, where I designed and edited a weekly magazine supplement, and subsequently joined Sandia National Laboratories. I was a Sandia senior administrator (internal consultant) at the time I left to start a consultancy in October 2001.

At other times I served as managing editor of the weekly Albuquerque News and editorial director of the London-based publications arm of IMS International (now Dun & Bradstreet’s IMS Health).

My writings include five published books, several reference works, and hundreds of articles in publications ranging from Smithsonian to the London Sunday Times. The books include three out-of-print popular-science titles, plus three listed by Goodreads -- Wonderment, Solar System (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2002), and a history of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), The Star Wars Enigma (Potomac Books, July 2006). I was a contributing author for The Science Book (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001) and The McGraw-Hill Homeland Security Handbook (2005).
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Nigel Hey's Blog

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This is something we take a great pride in.
Duns has been an enthusiastic sponsor of
the Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue Trust
since 2006

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Published on October 01, 2017 15:15

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Nigel Hey’s books

Average rating: 4.07 · 14 ratings · 4 reviews · 7 distinct works

	Wonderment 4.80 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2012	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Solar System 3.80 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2002 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Star Wars Enigma: Behind the Scenes of the Cold War Race for Missile Defense liked it 3.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2006 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Mysterious Sun. it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1971 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	How Will We Feed the Hungry Billions? Food for Tomorrow's World, by Nigel Hey (Goodreads Author), Science Book Associates Editors 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1971	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	How We Will Explore the Outer Planets, 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1973	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Star Wars Enigma: Behind the Scenes of the Cold War Race for Missile Defense by Nigel Hey (2007-12-13) by Nigel Hey (Goodreads Author), Unknown Author 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Nigel Hey…

Quotes by Nigel Hey (?)

“An odd thing about perception is that when we identify some new thing with one or more of our five senses, it is not really, immutably real -- it is a passing will o’ the wisp, an artifact of the senses and the translations of the brain until we get used to it and we give it a home in our hearts”
― Nigel Hey

tags: humanity, life-lessons, mind, philosophy, psychology, reality

3 likes

“Humankind spends so much time admiring and ritualizing the inventions of humankind! And yet humankind is such a tiny part of all there is. -- Nigel S. Hey, Wonderment(Matador, 2012)”
― Nigel Hey

tags: human-nature, inspirational, philosophy

2 likes

Nigel’s Quotes

“One great question underlies our experience, whether we think about it or not: what is the purpose of life? . . . From the moment of birth every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering. Neither social conditioning nor education nor ideology affects this. From the very core of our being, we simply desire contentment. . . Therefore, it is important to discover what will bring about the greatest degree of happiness.”
― Tenzin Gyatso the fourteenth Dalai Lama

tags: inspirational

8 likes

“We are as gods and might as well get good at it.”
― Stewart Brand

tags: ecology, humankind, philosophy

18 likes

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

tags: attributed-no-source, human-nature, humor, infinity, philosophy, science, stupidity, universe

148288 likes

tags: humanity, life-lessons, mind, philosophy, psychology, reality

3 likes

“We are, perhaps uniquely among the earth’s creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives, fearing the future, discontent with the present, unable to take the idea of dying, unable to sit still.”
― Lewis Thomas