I was born in Birmingham, England in 1950. I later lived in London and Cambridge before moving to Aberystwyth, Wales, where I graduated (as a mature student) in Botany at Aberystwyth University. I worked for 15 years at the Welsh Plant Breeding Station (now a part of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research - IGER), initially on breeding hybrid barley, then on the tissue culture and genetic manipulation of agricultural grasses. Since 1991 I have worked for the Countryside Council for Wales, formerly as the Area Ecologist for CCW West Area and now as CCW's Lower Plant Ecologist.

I live with my partner Chris, and a big black "standard" poodle.

I have a particular interest in the bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) of Wales, and am the British Bryological Society Recorder for the vice-county of Cardiganshire. My interest in 'lower' plants also extends to lichens and stoneworts (a group of algae).

I am interested in many aspects of computing, in particular for biological applications such as species distribution recording and mapping, vegetation analysis, GIS (Geographical Information Systems), programming (with Delphi, PHP,C#, Mapbasic) and building Websites and Web-enabled databases.

I also enjoy photographing plants, especially mosses, liverworts, lichens and fungi.

I play bass guitar, currently with a blues-rock band called "Rhythm Injection".