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What is your earliest memory?
Sitting on the floor, my mother doing the ironing, and on the radio was The Tremeloes playing “Silence is Golden”. My mother said, with some asperity: “If silence is golden, why don’t they shut up?” -
Who was or still is your mentor?
The late editor of Nature, John Maddox, chose me straight out of graduate school to be a staff writer. This was like being picked for Arsenal after having a kick-around in the back yard. He taught me all I know about writing. He’d give you a task that was slightly too difficult, and throw you at it. I had no portfolio, no reporting experience, he just liked the look of me. Talk about a lucky break! I hope I’ve been worthy of his mentorship. -
How fit are you?
Very unfit. I always thought, rather rudely, that extreme physical fitness compensated for lack of intellectual ability. I’ve always had a deep and abiding suspicion of fitness and those who promote it. The most I’ve ever run in the past 10 years is for a bus. However, I don’t feel entirely human until I’ve walked at least a couple of miles with my dogs every day. The one piece of equipment every author needs is a dog: your dog forces you off your bottom. -
Tell me about an animal you have loved.
I have a house full of pets: four dogs, three cats, snakes, chickens, fish. If I had to choose just one, it would be my golden retriever Dan. When I was a teenager and full of angst, he would lean against me and make happy noises. He wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he was a great comfort. -
Risk or caution, which has defined your life more?
Mostly caution, with very occasional jags of risk. I tend to be cautious about small things and not very cautious about big things. Whenever we’ve bought a house it’s usually a snap decision. Mostly I’m risk-averse, but occasionally I say, “What the hell” and just pitch in. -
What trait do you find most irritating in others?
Hypocrisy. -
What trait do you find most irritating in yourself?
Procrastination. I used to be great at procrastination but now I just can’t seem to get round to it. -
What drives you on?
Guilt. I suffer from Kipling syndrome: I have to fill an unforgiving minute with 60 seconds’ worth of distance run, as he wrote in “If”. If I’m not doing anything, I feel I should be doing something. -
Do you believe in an afterlife?
No. Our lives are short and finite. After that you’re compost. -
Which is more puzzling, the existence of suffering or its frequent absence?
Suffering is natural. Everyone suffers, physically or mentally. -
Name your favourite river.
When I was a kid, we lived in a cottage in the Ashdown Forest. Me and my sister spent hours in the stream at the bottom of the garden, damming, tadpoling, wading, making bridges, just mucking around. I still dream about that tiny little stream. -
What would you have done differently?
Things are the way they are. I don’t think regret is a helpful emotion or motivation.
“A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Chapters” by Henry Gee (Pan Macmillan) won the 2022 Royal Society Science Book Prize
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