I have a degree in geology, but my day job / career has been in the field of manufacturing management in engineering across a wide range of products and markets including cycle components, nickel-cadmium batteries, technical ceramics and contract electro-optical research and development.

Mineralogy is purely a hobby pursuit, but my wife would tell you it is an obsession! I have been collecting minerals since 1970 and have an extensive personal collection of British minerals and micromounts.

I am the founder and Honorary Life President of the British Micromount Society. I was awarded the Russell Medal for services to mineralogy in 1998 and served as Hon. President of the Russell Society in the UK from 2009 – 2013.

I have donated specimens to many national and local museum collections and have an excellent knowledge of literature relating to British Mineralogy.

In 2017 I was awarded the inaugural Marsh Award for Services to Mineralogy, and in June of 2023 was amazed to be the recipient of a British Empire Medal in the King’s Birthday Honours List ‘for services to mineralogy’.

I have published four books, two on British topographical mineralogy – Crystal Mountains Minerals of the Cairngorms (2014) and Minerals of the English Midlands (2018);  and two biographical accounts of major British mineral collectors: Making it Mine – Sir Arthur Russell and his Mineral Collection (2022) and The Mineral World of John Ruskin (2026).