About the Author
I'm a native of Pembrokeshire. I read Geography at Oxford University prior to working in the Antarctic for a while and then I spent 11 years teaching geomorphology in Durham University. In 1976 I moved back to Wales with my wife and family to a smallholding -- where we set up two small businesses, my wife as a candle-maker and I as a writer and publisher. We have been at the same address now for 38 years, and see no reason to move. We couldn't live anywhere more beautiful. We have two sons and two grandsons. Apart from my great interest in Stonehenge and the bluestones, and local prehistory and folk traditions, I also write fiction -- and have now written eight volumes in the Angel Mountain Saga -- all tales about a feisty and imperfect heroine called Martha Morgan, who lived on the flanks of Carningli -- the mountain which lies between my home and the north Pembrokeshire coast. Needless to say, the mountain figures strongly in the stories, like a character in its own right.....
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The World of Ice
Some of my happiest memories are connected with research work in the field of glacial geomorphology, in Iceland, Greenland, Norway, the UK and Antarctica.
My first serious fieldwork was in Iceland in 1960, on a small Oxford University expedition to a glaciated valley called Kaldalon, in the NW of the country. That expedition was organized and led by myself and my good friend David Sugden. In 1962 we led another expedition, this time to Kjove Land in East Greenland -- a very remote and beautiful region at the head of Scoresby Sund and at the mouth of Nordvestfjord -- one of the biggest and longest fjords in the world. After that, I concentrated on field research in Pembrokeshire and obtained my doctorate in 1965. Then it was off to the Antarctic, on another joint project with David, to examine the glacial history of the South Shetland Islands. That involved becoming an employee of the British Antarctic Survey for a year. After marrying Inger in 1967, we moved to Lanchester, near Durham, and spent eleven very happy years there, during which I led various field parties to Iceland, the Faroes and Norway. In 1973 I started work on a major project in NW Iceland which related to climate change and glacier oscillations -- but sadly I had to abandon that when we moved back to wales, and it was left in the hands of other colleagues from Durham University. Some of my published output during and after my time in Durham arose out of my specialist knowledge of glaciers and the Ice Age -- including one book called "The Ice Age", one called "The World of Ice", and another called "The Winters of the World." But my most popular book -- written with David Sugden -- was "Glaciers and Landscape" -- a university text which remained in print for almost 30 years and which became a standard textbook for geomorphology and glaciology students worldwide. I was very chuffed a couple of years ago when the Antarctic Place-names Committee did me the honour of naming a glacier after me, in the region now known as Queen Elizabeth Land. Since moving back to Wales I have maintained my interest in icy places and glaciers, helping with assorted research projects, contributing to university field trips in Wales, and getting more and more involved in the debate about glaciers and the bluestones of Stonehenge...... |
From the Polar Albums
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