Colin comes from a long line of storytellers and was born in a place where stories run like water.
Raised in the austere and brooding fenland landscapes of West Norfolk, it was here, wedged against the borders of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire that allowed Colin to have a childhood full of the outdoors; eyes full of the mercury and sky of the marshes, meres, and straight fenland rivers.
This, coupled with family camping holidays to almost every wild corner of the British Isles cemented in him his love of wildlife and the outdoors. Seeing a sparrowhawk kill a blue tit was the final straw: the natural world was a world he wanted to be involved in. It wasn’t long before birds, birdwatching and every creeping thing became an all-out obsession.
A University graduate of Public Health and graduate student of Environmental Science Colin became fascinated with the relationship between the human mind and nature. Since then he’s endeavoured to make a life as part of the nature that surrounds him and his work focuses on where humans and the wild meet.
He now works on a freelance basis and has written for many publications and organisations such as The Guardian, Earthlines, the National Trust, BBC Wildlife, Slightly Foxed and Orion Magazine. His first book, Shadows in the Hay was published in 2014 and has been praised as ‘a thoughtful exploration of our cultural estrangement from nature. It’s an elegant homage to the landscapes and places that shape us.’ His latest book, Haunted by the Last Tide was a collaboration with the Society of Wildlife Artists and the Vadehavet National Park, in celebration of the wildlife, landscapes, and culture of the Danish Wadden Sea
He lives with his wife Anna amongst the chalk downs of Hampshire. Some say he’s a pretty handy guitar player and, for what it’s worth, he firmly believes Richard Thompson to be the finest guitarist and songwriter ever to have walked the earth. He is a podcaster with Beneath the Stream.
He is afraid of rats.