Usually of course this means my own experience, but imagination also plays a role. My recently-published story “Callie” adopts the perspective of a captive-bred Scottish wildcat on her journey to independence. Set in the Cairngorms, the story closely followed observations from the Saving Wildcats project.

I’ve been developing a creative non-fiction treatment of part of my PhD research, exploring the complex interplay of conservation objectives, ancestral traditions and community priorities in Kenya’s coastal forests. Although this research has been aired at academic conferences and in print, approaching it as narrative non-fiction has been a deeply satisfying way of recapturing the vibrancy of people and place and the immediacy of the issues.

I’m currently working on a project about Derbyshire’s River Derwent, exploring its length from the remote and little-visited source to its confluence with the River Trent. It’s an appealingly self-possessed river that weaves its way from the high moorland through historic villages, working farmland and urban parks, unconcerned by any expectations that it should reach the sea.

Rivers and coasts are a recurrent source of inspiration. I’ve written walking guides to the Welsh sections of the Rivers Severn and Wye, and I’m now planning a future project framed by a long-distance coastal walk in Wales, linking landscape with memory, family and belonging.