How Can I?

People who have, or might have Asperger Syndrome
Real People - Ficticious Characters
WARNING: This document lists several persons who might have been aspies, and who are great achievers. These are the EXCEPTION, not the rule. It is important to avoid making the mistake of expecting all aspies to have the same abilities and potential as those listed below! Such comparisons are hurtful and unfair.

Some of the persons mentioned here are no longer alive. It is sometimes difficult to get a definitive diagnosis even for living, cooperative persons, let alone persons who no longer are available for comment. Some of the names are mere speculation. It is perfectly possible for someone to have been included in this list incorrectly. Most of the names have been collected from a post which I intiated in the AspergerOasis forum "List of Asperger Achievers". The list also includes the original text where possible.

Real People

Einstein

Alfred Jarry My husband and I read about the late 19th/early 20th century writer Alfred Jarry (the Ubu plays), and believe he might have had AS. He adopted the exaggerated persona of one of his Classics teachers, spoke in a metallic monotone, used the royal "we" pronoun for himself, lived alone in a crawl space with a stuffed owl, mostly ate fish and not much else, etc.

Erik Satie Also, the French composer Erik Satie, an eccentric loner who went to music school in his 40s, and was very formal, described as shy, could not keep a relationship with a girlfriend, though he tried. He was well liked by colleagues, but kept his distance. Both men had bizarre senses of humor (wonderful to us). There are a few people who are suspects, but who are still alive, so I won't mention them.

Alfred Hitchcock My husband is reading a biography at present about Alfred Hitchcock and it is uncanny how many AS-like behaviors/thoughts he had. He was into the train systems growing up and knew the whole transportation system around him. Lots of other characterstics too.
My husband read a Hitchcock biography and came to the same conclusion.

Stanley Kubrick Also, I forgot another of his candidates: Stanley Kubrick.

Bela Bartok

Thomas Edison Thomas Edison is another one with classic signs of AS. He would get an idea, work on it day and night without realizing the amount of time he had spent. His wife told of how she would bring his meals out to his workshop daily for up to 2 weeks when he would be stuck on an idea.

Montgomery I have just finished reading Montgomery's biography. He was THE British war time Field Marshall. Became Lord Montgomery of Alemain.
While reading it - and we are new to AS so have been reading heaps on that too - I though this man was AS. But then I thought "No, just reading too much into it" The final chapter gave a text-book diagnoses on an AS in describing him. So there's one for the list.

Michelangelo Another possible Aspie is Michelangelo. I recently read "Three Worlds of Michelangelo" by James Beck. He relates some incidents from Michelangelo's childhood that point to AS. Michelangelo's father did not want him to be an artist and actually beat him to get him to change his mind (sculpture as obsession?). Michelangelo also had his nose broken by a bully when he was a teenager. The bully apparently had had enough of Michelangelo defending another sculptor's work.
By the way, it appears that Michelangelo used a method that no other sculptor has used before or since. He apparently chipped away the stone in one location until he had reached the surface of his statue. He then expanded that spot. This produced the effect of a figure emerging from the marble. I think that he was able to do this because he could visualize the statue within the stone. He then chipped away the stone until the stone looked like what he visualized.

T.H.Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) What about Lawrence of Arabia? If the film portrayed his character faithfully I think he might have been an aspie too (I only know the film version - does anyone know more about the real man?).
Yes, read his life story and YES YES YES (and I thing O'Toole may be a candidate himself)

Leonardo Da Vinci That's fascinating about Michelangelo revealing a work of art from a stone -sort of like digging for buried treasure! How about Leonardo da Vinci? He made copious amounts of drawings in his notebooks, and was especially obsessed with machines that could make people fly. He made so many inventions, and was so far ahead of his time. I can't imagine he had much time for a social life.
I would love to believe that the painter of the greatest portrait of all time had difficulty with facial expressions. It would certainly cast the Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile into a new light.

Alan Turing

Glenn Gould The Canadian pianist/composer/writer Glenn Gould was diagnosed AS posthumously by his psychiatrist, who had teated him for years for OCD & anxiety symptoms. After Gould died, he became aware of AS and decided that fit him better. Gould had severe counting compulsions, social phobia, and lacked a lot of social skills. At the least, he sounds like an AS cousin. See "32 Short Films about Glenn Gould" if you can; it's very good.
I've always wondered about Glenn Gould. I remember he had a funny obsession with the far North. He sure did a bang-up job on the Goldberg Variations, it is one of our favorite CD's.
My husband is just finishing reading " Glenn Gould : The Ecstasy and Tragedy of Genius" by Peter F. Ostwald and in the book Asperger Syndrome is specifically mentioned

Evgeny Kissin A couple of years ago I was reading the Music Issue of the NEW YORKER Magazine and read an article about the pianist, Evgeny Kissin titled."Questions of Genius -- Evgeny Kissin and the Nature of Prodigy" and wow,.. did he seem to fit.. Actually the entire article was interesting because there was some discussion of music as a "first" language

George Bernard Shaw Mention was made of the character of Henry Higgins [see fictional characters, below]. That character was created by and probably patterned after George Benard Shaw, who is considered by many second only to Shakespeare as a playwright. Shaw clearly displayed the charateristics of Aspergers. Never married although he carried on a torrid and infamous affair with a woman via mail only! World remowned as a dramatist, Nobel prize for literature, but never wrote a play till he was 49 years old. Although he was a writer and obsessed with language...could not spell and refused to learn.

Michael Ende I think that Michael Ende, author of "The NeverEnding Story", had AS. Since learning about AS I remembered this film and realised that the boy in the story shows every sign of AS. I tried to find as much as I could about Ende, and I think he was an aspie himself, and modelled at least three of the characters in the story after himself. I can't wait to get hold of his other books.

Gerald Durell Possibly Gerald Durell, author of "My Family and Other Animals" and several more books. Had a very unique way of looking at the world. Obsessed with animals. Hated socialising and has some very eloquent and amusing writings about the occasions he was forced into some reception. Had a very poor opinion on politicians - his own opinions were very strong. He was described as slightly mad as a child, but did a very good job of depicting the rest of the world as mad and eccentric, and himself the only sane person alive.

Ficticious Characters

Bastian ("The NeverEnding Story") Did any of you see the film "The NeverEnding Story"? To me it is the story of a boy with AS. When I first saw it I just felt SO MUCH like Bastian, it became one of my favourite films of all time. Now I know why. Everthing about it - the inability to make friends, solitude, the bullying, his imagination, problems at school, everything.

The chess masters ("Chess") Also, I've just heard this musical "Chess" and in it, both chess masters exhibit AS traits. They are both immensely focused on their game to the exclusion of everything else. They are not good at socialising, have no friends, do not show they care about others, and feel that in Chess they found something they can really do well (song: "Now I'm where I wanna be and who I wanna be and doing all the things I always said I would..."). They cannot deal with the hysterical emotions of others. The Russian's wife is unable to be understand him. So far I've only heard the music but I'd like to actually see it now.

Henry Higgins ("My Fair Lady") He is single, and has no wish to marry ("I'm a bachelor and likely to remain so", and the song "I'm an Ordinary Man"). He gives as his reason that a woman would disrupt and bring changes to his well-ordered life. When he fails to understand Eliza he asks "Why can't a woman be more like a man?", and paints a very pretty picture of 'man' - as himself.
He has no friends. Only his housekeeper and servants, and Colonel Pickering whom he tolerates because he is a linguist like himself.
He is very obsessed with details (he is a phoneticist and grammarian, and manages to bore even another linguist with his details about vowels and pronunciation). He can tell, by a person's accent, where the person lives "within five miles - two miles in London, sometimes two streets."
He says tactless remarks to people and is rather surprised that they are offended ("Have we met before?" ["I don't know"] "Well I suppose you'd better sit down" to a distinguished person invited by his mother to her box at Ascot. His mother: "Henry! What a disagreeable surprise. The moment you meet my friends I never see them again". Also: "The Archbishop and Henry together? Goodness no! I would be excommunicated!" When Eliza runs away he is very surprised although he has been treating her like dirt all along. He tries to think whether there's anything he said or did, but can think of nothing.
He wears the wrong clothes at the races in Ascot (which seems to have a very particular dress code) When she sees him, his mother says "What are you doing here? You promised never to come here. Besides, you're not even dressed for Ascot."
He doesn't notice other people's feelings. He makes Eliza, his pupil, work for hours on end without stopping to eat or sleep and expects her not to mind. "But Prof. Higgins, it's early in the morning!" "What better time to work than early in the morning".
This isn't because he dislikes her. "It's not whether I treat you like a flower girl, but whether you've ever heard me treat anyone any differently". "If you don't me to roll over you just get out of my way."
When Eliza runs away he is annoyed, because "I've grown accustomed to her face". Even at the very end he doesn't feel anything FOR her - he's just annoyed because he can't find his slippers or remember his appointments. He wants her back - doesn't care what she thinks about it.
He treats Eliza like an acquisition and says so. "Of course she's mine - I paid five pounds for her". He doesn't know where to buy a Lady's gown although the other linguist points out it's "common knowledge".
His speech is often very formal "If the Higgins Oxygen burns up her little lungs let her seek some stuffiness that suits her."; "I have my own soul, my own spark of divine fire."
He feels different and superior to just about everybody else "She's an owl, sickened by a few days of my sunlight". He wants to be independent "And so I can get along without her! Without her or anybody else!"

Reg ("Star Trek Voyager") Did any of you see last night's episode of voyager? The character of Reg seems to be an aspie. The obsession with aspects of his work, difficulty in eye contact, socializing, academically brilliant but socially naive, pedantic speech, etc. The writers really did a great job of illustrating Aspie characteristics and in a respectful way--he was actually the hero of the episode.
Barclay actually originated on "The Next Generation" years ago. That episode really set up the character. In that ep he was more comfortable talking to his fantasy friends in the holodeck than with his real live crewmates. When I saw that episode again after finding about AS, I agree, he is very Aspie-ish! That whole episode was about Geordi taking him under his wing and trying to help him learn how to socialize and connect with the other crewmembers. Up to that point the crew had been making fun of his odd behaviours, even calling him "Broccoli". Geordi became his "buffer", mentor and friend.
I don't think the writers had Aspergers in mind when they created the character(Barclay said in that ep that he was just terminally shy), but I have to say, from the moment I first saw Barclay, I identified with that character. Especially his fantasy world in the holodeck where he would escape to in times of stress. I have an elaborate fantasy world as well.:-)
By the end of the episode he is learning how to "connect" with the crew, and they are beginning to accept and understand his quirks. It's a good episode! After that Barclay would appear periodically in other episodes of TNG. I had read he would be on Voyager. I don't have cable so I can't see it. Oh, well!

Malviolo, Ageucheek (Shakespeare, "Twelfth Night") This brings to mind other fictional characters that probably have Asperger's, but whose author obviously couldn't have know about it: There are two characters in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Malvolio and Sir Andrew Ageucheek (sorry, I've probably mangled the spellings). Sir Andrew had no idea about social skills and always shadowed another character (whose name I've forgotten) constantly asking for advice and shy to a fault. Malvolio was rulebound and came off as pompous, and also had no idea about social skills (particularly when it comes to reading the intentions of women -- Lady Olivia, in particular).
I'm sure there are many examples of characters in plays and novels throughout history who have obvious characteristics of AS. My guess is that in the NT collective consciousness, there is a stereotype of various forms of AS and has been since the beginning of human society. Sometimes they get it more or less right (as in the case of Barclay on Star Trek) and other times they get it wrong -- as in the case of the two _Twelfth Night_ characters, who were portrayed as buffoons and comic relief and the audience is obviously supposed to laugh AT them and not WITH them. :(

Arthur Dent & co. I have no information to suggest that Douglas Adams (author) had AS, but some of his characters in "Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy" and his other writings sure show these signs. Arthur Dent is a loner, a failure at every social occasion. Ford Prefect is an alien who gets stuck on planet Earth by mistake. Marvin the robot is constantly depressed because he is immensely intelligent but has to do all the menial tasks. Zaphod who is the personification of ego.
Below are some excerpts from his various books which I can remember:
"Hey this is terrific! Someone down there is trying to kill us!" "Terrific," "But don't you see what this means?" "Yes. We are going to die."
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move
The fronting for the eighty-yard long marble-topped bar had been made by stitching together nearly twenty thousand Antarean Mosaic Lizard skins, despite the fact that the twenty thousand lizards concerned had needed them to keep their insides in.
Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much... the wheel, New York, Wars, and so on, while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. The dolphins believed themselves to be more intelligent than man for precisely the same reasons.
About the author: In a long and varied career Douglas has also written the Dirk Gently novels, a non-fiction book (Last Chance to See) on endangered species, worked as a chicken shed cleaner, a bodyguard for an Arab royal family, and played guitar for Pink Floyd.

<Home 17 Dec 2000 email:

Real People
Einstein
Alfred Jarry	My husband and I read about the late 19th/early 20th century writer Alfred Jarry (the Ubu plays), and believe he might have had AS. He adopted the exaggerated persona of one of his Classics teachers, spoke in a metallic monotone, used the royal "we" pronoun for himself, lived alone in a crawl space with a stuffed owl, mostly ate fish and not much else, etc.
Erik Satie	Also, the French composer Erik Satie, an eccentric loner who went to music school in his 40s, and was very formal, described as shy, could not keep a relationship with a girlfriend, though he tried. He was well liked by colleagues, but kept his distance. Both men had bizarre senses of humor (wonderful to us). There are a few people who are suspects, but who are still alive, so I won't mention them.
Alfred Hitchcock	My husband is reading a biography at present about Alfred Hitchcock and it is uncanny how many AS-like behaviors/thoughts he had. He was into the train systems growing up and knew the whole transportation system around him. Lots of other characterstics too. My husband read a Hitchcock biography and came to the same conclusion.
Stanley Kubrick	Also, I forgot another of his candidates: Stanley Kubrick.
Bela Bartok
Thomas Edison	Thomas Edison is another one with classic signs of AS. He would get an idea, work on it day and night without realizing the amount of time he had spent. His wife told of how she would bring his meals out to his workshop daily for up to 2 weeks when he would be stuck on an idea.
Montgomery	I have just finished reading Montgomery's biography. He was THE British war time Field Marshall. Became Lord Montgomery of Alemain. While reading it - and we are new to AS so have been reading heaps on that too - I though this man was AS. But then I thought "No, just reading too much into it" The final chapter gave a text-book diagnoses on an AS in describing him. So there's one for the list.
Michelangelo	Another possible Aspie is Michelangelo. I recently read "Three Worlds of Michelangelo" by James Beck. He relates some incidents from Michelangelo's childhood that point to AS. Michelangelo's father did not want him to be an artist and actually beat him to get him to change his mind (sculpture as obsession?). Michelangelo also had his nose broken by a bully when he was a teenager. The bully apparently had had enough of Michelangelo defending another sculptor's work. By the way, it appears that Michelangelo used a method that no other sculptor has used before or since. He apparently chipped away the stone in one location until he had reached the surface of his statue. He then expanded that spot. This produced the effect of a figure emerging from the marble. I think that he was able to do this because he could visualize the statue within the stone. He then chipped away the stone until the stone looked like what he visualized.
T.H.Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)	What about Lawrence of Arabia? If the film portrayed his character faithfully I think he might have been an aspie too (I only know the film version - does anyone know more about the real man?). Yes, read his life story and YES YES YES (and I thing O'Toole may be a candidate himself)
Leonardo Da Vinci	That's fascinating about Michelangelo revealing a work of art from a stone -sort of like digging for buried treasure! How about Leonardo da Vinci? He made copious amounts of drawings in his notebooks, and was especially obsessed with machines that could make people fly. He made so many inventions, and was so far ahead of his time. I can't imagine he had much time for a social life. I would love to believe that the painter of the greatest portrait of all time had difficulty with facial expressions. It would certainly cast the Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile into a new light.
Alan Turing
Glenn Gould	The Canadian pianist/composer/writer Glenn Gould was diagnosed AS posthumously by his psychiatrist, who had teated him for years for OCD & anxiety symptoms. After Gould died, he became aware of AS and decided that fit him better. Gould had severe counting compulsions, social phobia, and lacked a lot of social skills. At the least, he sounds like an AS cousin. See "32 Short Films about Glenn Gould" if you can; it's very good. I've always wondered about Glenn Gould. I remember he had a funny obsession with the far North. He sure did a bang-up job on the Goldberg Variations, it is one of our favorite CD's. My husband is just finishing reading " Glenn Gould : The Ecstasy and Tragedy of Genius" by Peter F. Ostwald and in the book Asperger Syndrome is specifically mentioned
Evgeny Kissin	A couple of years ago I was reading the Music Issue of the NEW YORKER Magazine and read an article about the pianist, Evgeny Kissin titled."Questions of Genius -- Evgeny Kissin and the Nature of Prodigy" and wow,.. did he seem to fit.. Actually the entire article was interesting because there was some discussion of music as a "first" language
George Bernard Shaw	Mention was made of the character of Henry Higgins [see fictional characters, below]. That character was created by and probably patterned after George Benard Shaw, who is considered by many second only to Shakespeare as a playwright. Shaw clearly displayed the charateristics of Aspergers. Never married although he carried on a torrid and infamous affair with a woman via mail only! World remowned as a dramatist, Nobel prize for literature, but never wrote a play till he was 49 years old. Although he was a writer and obsessed with language...could not spell and refused to learn.
Michael Ende	I think that Michael Ende, author of "The NeverEnding Story", had AS. Since learning about AS I remembered this film and realised that the boy in the story shows every sign of AS. I tried to find as much as I could about Ende, and I think he was an aspie himself, and modelled at least three of the characters in the story after himself. I can't wait to get hold of his other books.
Gerald Durell	Possibly Gerald Durell, author of "My Family and Other Animals" and several more books. Had a very unique way of looking at the world. Obsessed with animals. Hated socialising and has some very eloquent and amusing writings about the occasions he was forced into some reception. Had a very poor opinion on politicians - his own opinions were very strong. He was described as slightly mad as a child, but did a very good job of depicting the rest of the world as mad and eccentric, and himself the only sane person alive.
Ficticious Characters
Bastian ("The NeverEnding Story")	Did any of you see the film "The NeverEnding Story"? To me it is the story of a boy with AS. When I first saw it I just felt SO MUCH like Bastian, it became one of my favourite films of all time. Now I know why. Everthing about it - the inability to make friends, solitude, the bullying, his imagination, problems at school, everything.
The chess masters ("Chess")	Also, I've just heard this musical "Chess" and in it, both chess masters exhibit AS traits. They are both immensely focused on their game to the exclusion of everything else. They are not good at socialising, have no friends, do not show they care about others, and feel that in Chess they found something they can really do well (song: "Now I'm where I wanna be and who I wanna be and doing all the things I always said I would..."). They cannot deal with the hysterical emotions of others. The Russian's wife is unable to be understand him. So far I've only heard the music but I'd like to actually see it now.
Henry Higgins ("My Fair Lady")	He is single, and has no wish to marry ("I'm a bachelor and likely to remain so", and the song "I'm an Ordinary Man"). He gives as his reason that a woman would disrupt and bring changes to his well-ordered life. When he fails to understand Eliza he asks "Why can't a woman be more like a man?", and paints a very pretty picture of 'man' - as himself. He has no friends. Only his housekeeper and servants, and Colonel Pickering whom he tolerates because he is a linguist like himself. He is very obsessed with details (he is a phoneticist and grammarian, and manages to bore even another linguist with his details about vowels and pronunciation). He can tell, by a person's accent, where the person lives "within five miles - two miles in London, sometimes two streets." He says tactless remarks to people and is rather surprised that they are offended ("Have we met before?" ["I don't know"] "Well I suppose you'd better sit down" to a distinguished person invited by his mother to her box at Ascot. His mother: "Henry! What a disagreeable surprise. The moment you meet my friends I never see them again". Also: "The Archbishop and Henry together? Goodness no! I would be excommunicated!" When Eliza runs away he is very surprised although he has been treating her like dirt all along. He tries to think whether there's anything he said or did, but can think of nothing. He wears the wrong clothes at the races in Ascot (which seems to have a very particular dress code) When she sees him, his mother says "What are you doing here? You promised never to come here. Besides, you're not even dressed for Ascot." He doesn't notice other people's feelings. He makes Eliza, his pupil, work for hours on end without stopping to eat or sleep and expects her not to mind. "But Prof. Higgins, it's early in the morning!" "What better time to work than early in the morning". This isn't because he dislikes her. "It's not whether I treat you like a flower girl, but whether you've ever heard me treat anyone any differently". "If you don't me to roll over you just get out of my way." When Eliza runs away he is annoyed, because "I've grown accustomed to her face". Even at the very end he doesn't feel anything FOR her - he's just annoyed because he can't find his slippers or remember his appointments. He wants her back - doesn't care what she thinks about it. He treats Eliza like an acquisition and says so. "Of course she's mine - I paid five pounds for her". He doesn't know where to buy a Lady's gown although the other linguist points out it's "common knowledge". His speech is often very formal "If the Higgins Oxygen burns up her little lungs let her seek some stuffiness that suits her."; "I have my own soul, my own spark of divine fire." He feels different and superior to just about everybody else "She's an owl, sickened by a few days of my sunlight". He wants to be independent "And so I can get along without her! Without her or anybody else!"
Reg ("Star Trek Voyager")	Did any of you see last night's episode of voyager? The character of Reg seems to be an aspie. The obsession with aspects of his work, difficulty in eye contact, socializing, academically brilliant but socially naive, pedantic speech, etc. The writers really did a great job of illustrating Aspie characteristics and in a respectful way--he was actually the hero of the episode. Barclay actually originated on "The Next Generation" years ago. That episode really set up the character. In that ep he was more comfortable talking to his fantasy friends in the holodeck than with his real live crewmates. When I saw that episode again after finding about AS, I agree, he is very Aspie-ish! That whole episode was about Geordi taking him under his wing and trying to help him learn how to socialize and connect with the other crewmembers. Up to that point the crew had been making fun of his odd behaviours, even calling him "Broccoli". Geordi became his "buffer", mentor and friend. I don't think the writers had Aspergers in mind when they created the character(Barclay said in that ep that he was just terminally shy), but I have to say, from the moment I first saw Barclay, I identified with that character. Especially his fantasy world in the holodeck where he would escape to in times of stress. I have an elaborate fantasy world as well.:-) By the end of the episode he is learning how to "connect" with the crew, and they are beginning to accept and understand his quirks. It's a good episode! After that Barclay would appear periodically in other episodes of TNG. I had read he would be on Voyager. I don't have cable so I can't see it. Oh, well!
Malviolo, Ageucheek (Shakespeare, "Twelfth Night")	This brings to mind other fictional characters that probably have Asperger's, but whose author obviously couldn't have know about it: There are two characters in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Malvolio and Sir Andrew Ageucheek (sorry, I've probably mangled the spellings). Sir Andrew had no idea about social skills and always shadowed another character (whose name I've forgotten) constantly asking for advice and shy to a fault. Malvolio was rulebound and came off as pompous, and also had no idea about social skills (particularly when it comes to reading the intentions of women -- Lady Olivia, in particular). I'm sure there are many examples of characters in plays and novels throughout history who have obvious characteristics of AS. My guess is that in the NT collective consciousness, there is a stereotype of various forms of AS and has been since the beginning of human society. Sometimes they get it more or less right (as in the case of Barclay on Star Trek) and other times they get it wrong -- as in the case of the two _Twelfth Night_ characters, who were portrayed as buffoons and comic relief and the audience is obviously supposed to laugh AT them and not WITH them. :(
Arthur Dent & co.	I have no information to suggest that Douglas Adams (author) had AS, but some of his characters in "Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy" and his other writings sure show these signs. Arthur Dent is a loner, a failure at every social occasion. Ford Prefect is an alien who gets stuck on planet Earth by mistake. Marvin the robot is constantly depressed because he is immensely intelligent but has to do all the menial tasks. Zaphod who is the personification of ego. Below are some excerpts from his various books which I can remember: "Hey this is terrific! Someone down there is trying to kill us!" "Terrific," "But don't you see what this means?" "Yes. We are going to die." In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move The fronting for the eighty-yard long marble-topped bar had been made by stitching together nearly twenty thousand Antarean Mosaic Lizard skins, despite the fact that the twenty thousand lizards concerned had needed them to keep their insides in. Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much... the wheel, New York, Wars, and so on, while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. The dolphins believed themselves to be more intelligent than man for precisely the same reasons. About the author: In a long and varied career Douglas has also written the Dirk Gently novels, a non-fiction book (Last Chance to See) on endangered species, worked as a chicken shed cleaner, a bodyguard for an Arab royal family, and played guitar for Pink Floyd.