What do you do for a living? Retired but was Professor of Evolutionary Biology at Sheffield University.
What areas of conchology particularly interest you?
Land molluscs, and especially species diversity in faunas; also the shell polymorphism in Cepaea species.
How did your interest in molluscs begin? I was a keen birdwatcher, and as a student thought of research on birds. Forty minutes with my eventual supervisor (Professor Arthur Cain), and I emerged with a project on Cepaea. A little later, I constructed a primitive key to land snails for a field course where I was an assistant. By then, I was hooked!
When and how did you become a member of the Conchological Society? 1967. Near the end of my PhD studies, when it was clear that I was becoming a committed Conchologist.
In what ways have you been involved in the Society and its activities? Over the years, I have sent in many records to the non-marine recording scheme, written articles for J. Conch, the Conchologist’s Newsletter and Mollusc World, and given some talks at Society meetings. Most recently, I have been on Council, and chair the Conservation and Recording Committee. Outside the Society, I have run many identification courses, and produced keys and guides.
Do you have a memorable “conchological moment”?
A moment of (quiet) triumph. On holiday on Sark, I entered a small damp wood, saw a fallen log on swampy ground, thought “that is just the place for Leiostyla”, turned the log, and there it was (the first record for the island). But I have made plenty of bad guesses since!
If you were marooned on a desert island and could take only one book with you what would it be and why?
If I knew which island, and it had a snaily monograph, that would be it. Otherwise, pass!
If your house was burning down what shell (or shell related item) would you rescue first? Actually, not a shell (I have a huge, rather disorganised collection), because there is nothing unique. Prosaically, it would be my computer, because it has all my unpublished molluscan stuff.
Is there a shell or mollusc that eludes you? No particular species, but I have found that when I search, I often find more species than shown by previous records, but miss the really rare ones.
Do you draw any particular inspiration from historical figures in natural history and why?
It has to be A. E. Boycott, though Cyril Diver comes a close second. Boycott asked all the right questions (i.e. the ones that interest me), and came to conclusions which have stood the test of time without the sophisticated analyses used today. Both he and Diver were ‘amateurs‘ in both senses: they were not paid to be conchologists, and they were motivated by scientific curiosity.
Where are your favourite locations for shell hunting?
I am lucky; I have been to many exciting places here and abroad, and it is hard to choose. It would always be a forest. Just now, I would put the Azores at the top of the list: sufficiently known for most identification to be straightforward, sufficiently unknown to give a chance to find something new, good climate (for snails) and excellent company.
Can you give us a mollusc-related fact or joke?
It takes about 40,000 Punctum pygmaeum to make one Helix pomatia. That is the difference between a mouse and a rhinoceros.
A cartoon: A road with a great string of slugs behind a snail. First slug to second slug: “Bloody caravans!”
Words of advice to a budding conchologist? Meet others with the same interests. You learn far more from other people than any amount of books.