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Born in England toward the end of the World War II, I grew up during the days of ration books and coal fires. Not the most brilliant pupil at elementary school, I failed my 11-plus exam, relegating me to a secondary modern school. But I had good teachers and was captivated by science. I conducted experiments and built things at home. My interests included chemistry, rockets—which more often exploded than flew—boiling up bones to make skeletons, steam engines, and natural history.
After obtaining a B.Sc. in zoology, I became a full-time high-school teacher. I loved teaching but didn’t want to stay at school forever, so I enrolled as a part-time graduate student at London University, studying palaeontology. Receiving my Ph.D. three years later, I left my school teaching job in 1969 and moved to Canada, taking a curatorial position in vertebrate palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum, in Toronto. I was later cross-appointed as an assistant professor of zoology at the University of Toronto, finishing up as a full professor.
My speciality was ichthyosaurs, a group of fish-like reptiles that lived in the sea while dinosaurs roamed the land. Traveling the world to study ichthyosaurs took me to some unlikely places, from a monastery in Kremsmünster to a ghost town in Nevada. I’ve collected fossils in British Columbia, Manitoba, Nevada, the Chihuahuan Desert, and in Egypt. I’ve also explored the caves in Britain made famous by William Buckland (1784-1856), the early British fossilist who has the distinction of describing the world's first-named dinosaur, Megalosaurus.
Having enjoyed more than thirty years as a palaeontologist, the best job I can imagine, I took early retirement. Now I spend most of my time writing. I’ve also written and presented radio documentaries for CBC’s Ideas programs, on Steam and on Iron. I have 15 non-fiction books, mostly on science, and two works of fiction. Eight of my books were written for children.
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