I was born near the New Forest, lived in the wilder parts of the UK (father worked in forestry) including Cumbria (near Kendal), north-east England (Tyne Valley), west Scotland (banks of Loch Long), mid Wales (southern Snowdonia), west London (Shepherds Bush) and now live in South Wales (Black Mountains, the Brecon Beacons).
A Nature Prize at school in 1975 set me on the 
road towards the environment, followed by working within the rural sector after gaining a degree in Rural Land Management at the Royal Agric University. My college project in 1990 provides an inkling as to my train of thought 30 years on.
In the early 1990s, I worked for the National Trust as a land agent (farm effluent projects, Countryside Stewardship schemes), then joined a firm in Hertfordshire, before setting up my own rural surveying firm in 2002 specialising in utility project (and people) management.
When I lived in London, I commuted to Hertfordshire as a land agent while also writing a column, ‘Urban Fox’, on London Wildlife for the ‘London Informer’. Back in 1999, I had my first letter published in The Times (134 and counting) and in 2010, I was commissioned to write a journalist-style report “New demands; old countryside“. (See a link to my webpage of broad-church media-related experiences.) This experience later stimulated me to found Countryside Reconciliation and Environmental Dialogue about 10 years ago.
Having discovered a knack for communicating environmental and rural issues, I’ve also written a book on the A to Z of Fishing for WH Smith (2004) and presented two outdoor reality TV shows for Discovery H&L Channel: one on survival fishing (Reel Wars, five part, 2001) in Ireland and the other living off the land in a Welsh farmhouse (Great Escape, twelve part, 2002). They both continue to replay on Discovery.
