I am a biologist who has changed course to write. My main writing interests are natural history and fiction.

I have always been interested in the natural world. Perhaps that comes from starting off in the New Forest in the south of England, a landscape of woodland, heath and open pasture within a few miles of the sea. It is no surprise that I ended up as an academic biologist.

My principal professional interest has been the relationships between animals and beneficial microbes – variously known as symbioses and microbiomes. I have studied associations in aquatic animals, including corals, flatworms and hydra, and in insects, especially aphids and Drosophila fruitflies.

My professional life has taken me to different parts of the UK, including Yorkshire, the Thames Valley, Norfolk and north-east Scotland, and then to New York State in USA.

My natural history writing celebrates the local natural world. A collection of my essays, Nature on the Doorstep, has been published (Cornell University Press, 2023). My developing fiction is firmly based on the adage to “write about what you know” – imaginary worlds where science and the natural world play a role.

You are welcome to contact me at aes326(at)cornell.edu