Chris Thomas

So what does having been a professional research scientist, a photographer, an artist, a small business owner, an author, a publisher, a microscopist and a mammoth fan all have in common? Communication! I enjoy taking apparently complicated ideas, methods and stories and translating them into practical, easy to understand books for you.

Hmm, an anecdote, you suggest, Amazon. Well, two of my interests led to a third when I entered the door of the Norris Museum in St Ives, Huntingdonshire, England to kill some time. There, immediately in front of me was a display of mammoth tusks and teeth. But that was not what got my attention, it was a small tuft of hair with the label "40,000 year old mammoth hair".

I pretended to be casual as I asked to see the curator. "Have you ever looked at that mammoth hair under the microscope?" I queried."No". "Would you like to? We could check it out". "YES!" came the unexpected reply. Not only did we look at the hair and photograph it for the museum, we became detectives to find out how it came to St ives in the first place. Our investigation eventually linked that insignificant tuft to the first intact mammoth ever excavated back in 1902 and still on display in St Petersburg, Russia. I even set up an exhibition on Mammoths and Elephants living during the ice ages in our region. And yes, I wrote it all up in a book.

Serendipity - and a willingness to communicate what interests me to others. those also led me to write the 'how to guides' on microscopy, photography and QR codes.

My most recent book is The History of Cambridge Open Studios