Life: The First Four Billion Years

About Martin Jenkins

Martin Jenkins is an expert at presenting complicated subjects in entertaining and accessible ways to children. He has won several awards for his work.

He was born in Surrey in 1959 but grew up in Spain, Ireland and Kent. He attended Cambridge University as a scholar. A conservation biologist by trade, Martin worked full-time for ten years for World Conservation Monitoring Centre, writing about a range of conservation issues. Since 1990 he has worked freelance for organisations such as WWF and a number of UN bodies concerned with conservation and the environment. Martin's jobs have varied greatly: "I've been an orchid-sleuth in Germany, a timber detective in Kenya and an investigator of the chameleon trade in Madagascar."

Martin lives in Cambridge and London. Martin became involved with children's books when he was asked to advise on Walker Books' Animals at Risk series. Since then he has written several titles, including Emperor's Egg, winner of the Times Junior Information Book of the Year Award and Fly Traps! Plants that Bite Back, which was shortlisted for the same award. He has also retold Gulliver's Travels, winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal, and Don Quixote.