Born in Edinburgh in 1930, the youngest of six, into a six-generation cartographic family, his interest in Nature started early; he spent many of his younger days on the Scottish hills, observing their wildlife. His National Service in 1948-49 was as a Gordon Highlander in The Gambia seconded to the West African Frontier Force. At the University of Cambridge he read Geology and Geography, going on to graduate studies at the University of Chicago.

After seven years in educational publishing in London and New York, he joined the Houghton Mifflin Company in Boston, and was part of the editorial team that in 1962 published Rachel Carson's The Silent Spring, book and author deeply moving him; this book became the catalyst for many in the emerging environmental movement. [For more on the influences and preparation for this work, see Articles: "In My Own Words" Resurgence mag, 2004].

In 1971 he founded the Turnstone Press in London, his first book - Jonathan Livingston Seagull gave the imprint a great launch. Turnstone broke new ground; its vision was to reconcile science with a spiritual worldview. The list contained many practical books on self-help, health and dowsing. In 1979 Thorsons Publishers bought the list. In 1979 Alick had started training as a Transpersonal psychotherapist, going on to practise privately; he was also for eight years part of the therapy team at the ground-breaking Bristol Cancer Help Centre.

In 1981 he started Gateway Books in Bath. This list partly continued the Turnstone vision, but introduced new scientific paradigms, such as a study of the crop circle phenomenon. Alick started working with Viktor Schauberger's research in 1979 and with Callum Coats from 1984. Gateway published Viktor Schauberger's research, including six commissioned books. In 1999 the list was taken over by Gill Macmillan of Dublin.

Alick Bartholomew was the editor of Crop Circles - Harbingers of World Change (1991), and co-author with his wife, Mari, of Kombucha Tea for your Health and Healing (1994). The Schauberger Keys came out in 2002. In 2003 Floris Books published Hidden Nature - The Startling Insights of Viktor Schauberger. He is a member of The Scientific and Medical Network.

Currently finishing a major work, The Secret of Water - A Celebration of Life: a holistic study of the role of water in the creation, sustenance and evolution of life.

Part I explores the fascination and inspiration of water. It tells of water in the Universe and the Solar System. It describes the great water cycles, and their purpose - in the oceans, the atmoshpere, on the land, under the Earth's surface, in forests, trees, in agriculture, in other organisms and in humans. Water has peculiar, anomalous properties which fit it to be the key to life's processes.

Part II deals with the lesser known, energetic, qualities of water, illustrating how it is able to perform its incredible functions of initiating and sustaining life. Practical things like dowsing and how we must cherish more this wonderful gift of Nature; the latest research on water's memory. The reader is shown how awareness of the energy of living water can benefit his life.

Its themes include: Mae-Wan Ho's research into the long-range order and coherence of water & Martin Chaplin's on the importance of biological cell water in its two states; Viktor Schauberger's discovery of the importance of vortexical movement of water; Theodor Schwenk's evidence for how water conveys cosmic patterns to life forms; Jacques Beneviste's evidence for memory in water; Cleve Backster's research into biocommunication, and Masaru Emoto's for its sensitivity to the emotions, music and pollution.

The book discusses a wide range of other aspects of water: dowsing, planting by the Moon, water birthing, water as an engine fuel, why the best surfers are mystics, evolutionary theories, how planetary movements affect bud growth, trees as biocondensers of energy, why is biodiversity so important? and many more!

There's a great deal we still don't know about water. We believe that a deeper understanding of water is essential for our survival.

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