I was born under a wandering star in a trunk in the Princess Theater in Pocatello, Idaho in the Victoria Maternity Hospital in Barnet, London in 1962. I attended various schools including Whitgift School in Croydon (1972-74), where future author Neil Gaiman just missed me; followed by Sevenoaks School in Kent and finally Michael Hall School in Sussex (1976-1981) where I joined the same class as the future composer Paul Carr, cellist Nathalie Jacquet, and, as it happened, Neil Gaiman’s sister, and sandwiched between fashion designer Bella (class above) and novelist Esther Freud. Must have been something in the air.
I then went on to study Zoology & Genetics at the University of Leeds (1981-1984), which I represented on University Challenge, reaching the quarter finals in 1983. During this time I did a stint as a trainee researcher in the Department of Palaeontology at the Natural History Museum in London, an episode that was to feature heavily in my later book Deep Time.
I moved to Cambridge where I read for a PhD in Zoology (1984-1987), although it was really only music that kept me going. I played in quite a few outfits but the crowning pinnacle has to be playing the piano in a jazz band at Clare College May Ball on the same bill as Stan Tracey, accompanying jazz singer Sonita Alleyne … later OBE for services to broadcasting and now Master of Jesus College, Cambridge (definitely something in the air).
In 1987, before completing my doctorate, I joined the editorial staff of the leading science journal Nature on a three-month contract. It’s the longest three-month contract anyone has ever had. In the meantime I continued my doctorate research and was awarded a PhD in 1991.
Starting out as a science writer with a Nature-branded column in The Times, I moved to the ‘back half’, the team of skilled editors that selects the most important science sent to Nature from around the world. Specializing in palaeontology – the study of the deep past – the first known feathered dinosaurs, the bizarre ‘fishapod’ Tiktaalik, and the strange hobbit Homo floresiensis were all published under my stewardship.
In the meantime I kept on writing, with appearances in outlets such as the Huffington Post, Discover, The Literary Review, The Guardian, Scientific American, Nature Online, The London Review of Books, BBC Wildlife, BBC Focus, The Times, Le Monde, El Pais and many other newspapers and magazines.
I am the author of many books including A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth, The Accidental Species: Misunderstandings of Human Evolution, Jacob’s Ladder: The History of the Human Genome and In Search of Deep Time. A noted bore authority on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, I am the author of The Science of Middle-earth, and am a former editor of Mallorn, the journal of the Tolkien Society. Under my stewardship, Mallorn won SFX magazine’s accolade of ‘Fanzine of the Month’ – twice.
My next book, The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire, will appear in 2024. Look for updates at the book’s website here.
With a keen interest in science fiction, I founded the Futures science-fiction column in Nature. This garnered an award for Best Publisher from the European Society of Science Fiction (SESF) in 2005. I was Guest of Honour at ConStitution in Cambridge in 2009; and was George Hay Lecturer at the meeting of the British Science Fiction Society (EasterCon) in 2013. I have published several SF stories (collected as Hunting Unicorns and Other Stories); an SF trilogy The Sigil; and a SF-gothick detective story, By The Sea.
You can find everything you need to know about my books on my Amazon and Goodreads pages. I have spoken at many festivals and events and am a regular visitor to podcasts, radio (NPR’s All Things Considered, various BBC programmes such as In Our Time) and TV.
I gave the second Raymond Dart Memorial Lecture at Griffith University, Brisbane on The Unknown — a lecture I’ve delivered across the world from the Natural History Museum in Shanghai, to the Australian Museum in Sydney, the Bergamo Science Festival in Bergamo, Italy, and at the Institute of Art and Ideas, among many other places (and which you can hear on this podcast). I’ve spoken at the American Museum of Natural History, NY, and at the Hay Literary Festival, on Deep Time; was on several panel discussions and stand-alone events at the How The Light Gets In Festival in 2020; and I have appeared as a pundit on Nature‘s own video channel.
In 1996 I served as Regents Professor of the University of California, giving a graduate seminar at UCLA on science publication, entitled Publish or Perish.
Perhaps most inexplicably memorably I was invited to compete in a special alumni competition of University Challenge in 2019 — thirty-six years after my first appearance — once again representing the University of Leeds, alongside East-Asia specialist and author Jonathan Clements; award-winning photographer Tim Allen; and popstar-turned-churchman and broadcaster the Rev Richard Coles. The team appeared three times and went on to win the championship.
You can find me online on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.
I live in Cromer, Norfolk, England, with my family and numerous pets. One of my pets ran away to join the Fire Brigade; another has recently published a volume of autobiography. My recreations include supporting Norwich City FC, making music, and falling asleep.
