James Fenton

James HC Fenton was born in 1952 in the Mummy Room of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (then part of a private flat)! He was educated at Glenalmond College near Perth in Scotland and then attended Durham University where he studied botany. His first job was with the British Antarctic Survey, carrying out ecological research in Antarctica, during which time he gained a doctorate from the University of London with a thesis on Antarctic peat growth. Following this he worked as a tutor for five years at Brathay in the English Lake District, and also led expeditions for the Brathay Exploration Group to Scotland and Spitsbergen.

Thereafter he returned to Scotland as an ecological consultant, during which time he launched the monthly news digest SCENES and also led ski expeditions to the Arctic for Arcturus Expeditions. In 1986 he married Sue Wrenn, herself a seasoned arctic traveller, after they met on the Spitsbergen icecap. They have a daughter Mairi. In 1991 he joined The National Trust for Scotland as the organisation's first ecologist, where he remained until moving to Scottish Natural Heritage in 2005 to work on landscape policy in Scotland. He now lives near Inverness. James first worked for Lindblad Expeditions in 1989 as a naturalist on the Polaris. Since then he has been with them on many trips - round Britain, to Norway, Spitsbergen and Iceland, and he was also on the National Geographic Endeavour for its first Antarctic season in 1988/9.