Writer. Naturalist. Photographer. Carer. Bee Watcher.
About me
Above is my old @WildlifeStuff Twitter/X profile. Since Musk, I hardly ever post, but that description still sums me up.
Though I was born in Hackney in the 1960s, and lived in London for 12 years, my heart has always been in the countryside. I’m still the tomboy who tore about on her bike feeding squirrels and climbed stupidly high trees, just 50 years older.
I’ve lived in Dorset with my husband and a cast of cats for the last 25 years.
Nature & Gardens
I’m fascinated by wildlife and wild places.
My first book, written for HarperCollins and the National Trust; Nature’s Wonders: The Moments that Mark the Seasons, explores 50 magical moments that define our seasons. It encourages people to connect more with nature as well as discover some quirky facts along the way.
I’m also an amateur naturalist. I have a passion for bumblebees and solitary bees (the ones that make nests in your lawn, use holes in your walls and get mistaken for honeybees), badgers and old gnarly trees.
From 2007 to 2015, I wrote an award-winning online wildlife diary. Since then, my work has featured in BBC Countryfile Magazine, BBC Wildlife Magazine, and in Mark Avery’s Standing Up For Nature blog. I am the garden’s feature writer for Dorset Magazine and write a monthly nature column for BV Magazine.
I contributed two pieces to the ‘Changing seasons’ anthology; Autumn and Winter, edited by Melissa Harrison and published by Elliott & Thompson Limited.
I have written about pollinators for Dorset Wildlife Trust, poisonous plants for The Wildlife Trusts’ Wildlife Watch magazine, and about nightjars for the prestigious Land Lines’ Nightjar Nights project.
Travel
In 2022, I was a finalist in the Bradt New Travel Writer of the Year Competition with a story called Waiting for Wilma, and have written in The Telegraph’s Just back travel section about a disastrous campervan journey.
I love the feel of squelchy mud or sand between my toes and walks encountering wildlife or discovering new wild places.
Although I’m a carer, I still relish adventure, as written about in Carers Adventure Too for Adventure Uncovered.
Saying that, I’m also a dreadful couch potato. I can easily dunk half a packet of rich tea biscuits in a single sitting.
No one’s perfect, right?
Photography
A passion for photography in my teens and twenties landed me with a BA (Hons) in Photography at Salisbury College of Art in 1995.
Over the years, local and national magazines, blogs, and websites have used my wildlife photographs, including several for the book Plants for Bees written by William D J Kirk, and published by the International Bee Research Association (a selection here).
If you like photos of bugs, then check out my Instagram account as well.
Contact me
If you are interested in commissioning an article, using any of my nature photographs (I have a library of over 20,000), or simply want to discuss a writing project, I would love to hear from you.
Running on Studland Beach