As a child I loved animals and adventure, so I combined the two and studied biology as an undergraduate. I scurried around the forests of southern England looking for shrews and voles, scaled crumbling warehouses to watch seagulls, and dived into Australia’s Sydney Harbour where seahorses danced at dawn. My most thrilling animal encounter came not with work, but when I was travelling. Tramping though the jungle in Papua New Guinea, a sudden rustle in the undergrowth made me swing round to see – a kangaroo bounding up a tree! A wild tree-kangaroo was scaling a leaning trunk, surrounded by dense green leaves and iridescent blue butterflies. People should know about this, before it is all gone, I thought – and I’ve been writing ever since.

I’ve published in scientific journals and magazines, and written stories for books on whales and dolphins. Most fun is the travel writing, and it’s often the unexpected things that provide the greatest pleasure, like seeing an otter at play as I walk along the beach near my home in western Scotland. I hope you enjoy my monthly blogs on Alberta!