Biography
Peter Pohl was born on 5 December 1940 in Hamburg, Germany. He lost his father during World War II and moved to Sweden with his mother in 1945, where he started school in 1947. He went to the Södra Latin gymnasium in Stockholm until 1959. During this period, he engaged in medium-distance running, with good results, but he quit running when he was 19 years old. From his 15th until his 30th (1970), Pohl was part of the schools summercamp at Värmdö and later at Blidö. This period of his life is described in the books that form the Rainbow Series and are of particular influence of his other books.
He studied mathematics and physics and was a research assistant at the Swedish Defence Research Establishment for several years, starting in 1963. Pohl soon returned to university in order to graduate at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, where he received his doctorate in Numerical analysis in 1975. He became a lecturer in Numerical analysis and wrote several textbooks on this subject.
Pohl started filming in 1980 and won various prizes for his work. His writing career started in 1983 and two years later he published his first and most successful book, translated in English as Johnny, My Friend. Since then, he has published (As of 2008) 26 works of fiction.
He retired as a lecturer in 2005.
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