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BIOG

 Over a career lasting nearly 40 years, I have appeared on all Britain's major radio and television networks. If you're wondering where you saw me last, most probably on ITV's Countrywise.

In the early 2000s I spent seven years on BBC1's top-rated consumer affairs show, Watchdog, which continued a career in consumer journalism which began with That's Life in 1978, and continued later with Radio 4's You and Yours.

I have almost a score of books to my credit, both fiction and non-fiction. My book of science questions and answers for young people, Can Cows Walk Downstairs? has been a best-seller in fifteen languages. I have also written on both rural, maritime and farming matters. 

In 2005, I fulfilled a longstanding ambition to sail the Atlantic singlehanded in the wake of the solo sailing pioneers, which led to my book The Last Man Across the Atlantic.

My current book, One Wild Song, tells of my epic voyage to Cape Horn - 18,000 miles and 11,000 of them sailed alone - in order to reflect on the loss of my son. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also found time in my working life to be a pioneer organic farmer when, in 1990, I decided to master the skills of traditional farming using carthorses- Suffolk Punches- instead of tractors, and farmed 40 acres of Suffolk countryside. This experience inspired not only a hugely successful column, Farmer's Diary, which appeared weekly in The Times for seven years, but also a number of books.

My TV programmes for ITV Anglia proved enormously popular with audiences, including  re-creations of the Victorian and Wartime farming year, and my journeys along the Secret Rivers of East Anglia by canoe.

There is more on wikipaedia, although somewhat out of date, but largely accurate.

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