Nicholas Crane
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Nicholas Crane is a geographer and a journalist. A regular
contributor to The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, he is the
author of nine books and has also found time to undertake a 10,000 kilometre
mountain walk across Europe, from the Atlantic to the Black Sea.
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Gripped by the pedestrian bug, he has also attempted to
walk in a straight line along the length of England.
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In addition to Coast, Nicholas is working on a second
series of Map Man for 91Èȱ¬ TWO, after the first series received critical
acclaim last year.
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Nicholas's most recent published work is Mercator: The
Man Who Mapped the Planet - the first English-language biography of the
world's greatest cartographer.
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In 1993 Nicholas was awarded the Royal Scottish Geographical
Society's Mungo Park medal. In 2000 he won the USA's Polartec Adventurer
of the Year Award, for a lifetime devoted to bold, low-impact adventure.
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Nicholas is a Fellow of The Royal Geographical Society,
sits on the Council of the Royal Geographical Society, and is a member
of The Royal Society of Literature.
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He is married with three children, and lives in London.
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What have been the 'highs' and 'lows' of filming
Coast?
One of the highs has definitely got to be seeing the metholic
footprints exposed between the tide lines in the Gwent Levels in the Bristol
Channel.
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One of the most dramatic moments was jumping off a lifeboat
in the Irish Sea in November to survive in freezing seas for the ten minutes
it takes on average to be rescued.
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A low was probably the few alarming moments when we got
stuck on Bell Rock because we had problems with the inflatable boat that
took us there.
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Another high was flying in the coastguard helicopter off
the coast of the Outer Hebrides to see what role they play in safeguarding
the rural communities there. I got a real insight into the courage and
dedication of a group of people who don't often get much credit for doing
a dangerous job which is virtually always in difficult conditions.
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What is your favourite UK coastal place and why?
One is Blakeney Point in Norfolk because it's one of
those wonderfully remote spots. You can lose yourself there amongst the
sand dunes. It's a dynamic part of the British coastline which is changing
quickly. In Tudor times there was a port there, and you can trace the
outline of the port - it's now the village green.
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Cape Wrath is one of my other favourite places in the
top left hand corner of Scotland. It's wonderfully remote, with fantastic
cliffs and big white sandy beaches. It was the turning point for the Viking
ships as they travelled along the coast, and the trip to the point is
wonderful, whether walking or going on the minibus that runs during the
summer.
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What is your favourite coastal activity?
Walking, sailing, kayaking, and lying on the sand with
my eyes closed feeling the sun beating down on me.
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What is the best thing you've found at the coast?
Space and solitude. I'm from central London, so it's nice
to go to the coast and get away from it all. At the coast you're on an
exciting junction between sea and land.
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What hobbies do you have?
My main passion is to write books, and I'm going to go
back to writing again soon once I've finished all my television commitments.
I also have three children, so they become your hobby - mucking about
with them.
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Where do you holiday on the UK coast?
As a family we holiday in the UK and our most recent breaks
have been to the Outer Hebrides and Assynt - a stretch of remote coast
- and Cape Wrath on the north west coast of Scotland.
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What is your favourite seaside food?
It has to be a toss-up between
fresh scallops from a little pub I know in South Devon and either crab
or cod.
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I never go to the coast without...
My children (as often as possible),
plus my compass, binoculars and my OS map.
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What is the best thing about living in the UK?
We're never far from the sea! We're so lucky in the UK
as we are never much more than 70 miles from the sea wherever we live.
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Alice Roberts
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Alice Roberts is a qualified medical doctor and an expert
in anatomy. She teaches anatomy at the University of Bristol and is also
involved in research on human skeletal remains - both archaeological and
forensic. Alice is currently researching joint disease in ancient human
remains and ape skeletons.
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Archaeology is a passion for Alice, and she has been on
many excavations.
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A lady of many talents, she is a skilled artist, runs
a weekly pub quiz at her local, and has recently discovered surfing!
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In 2001 she joined Channel 4's Time Team after working
and reporting on the bones they found on their digs. She also appears
on Extreme Archaeology.
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Alice, 32, shares her life with a "dirty field archaeologist"
and a dirtier border terrier called Bob.
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What have been the highs and lows while filming
Coast?
Coast has taken me to some amazing places all around
the UK and I've met some fascinating and engaging people. I held a half-million-year-old
handaxe when I visited Norfolk to find out about the earliest humans in
Britain; I held a Mesolithic harpoon that was dropped on the land-bridge
that's now under the North Sea; and I stood in 5,000-year-old footprints
on the beach at Formby.
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I've also really enjoyed the challenge of doing 'science
on the beach', which included making alum using shale and human urine
(generously supplied by the 91Èȱ¬!) in Yorkshire.
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I've always been concerned about human impact on the environment,
so I enjoyed meeting writer and environmentalist Mark Lynas to find out
more about climate change, renewable energy sources and what we can all
do to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
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We filmed much of the series over winter, so some of it
has been very, very cold. I think I almost lost my gluteus maximus to
frostbite while up in Northumberland building a Mesolithic house in the
sleet and snow!
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What is your favourite UK coastal place and why?
There's a nice little secret surfing spot in North Cornwall
that's my favourite, but obviously I'd have to kill you if I told you
where!
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North Devon is also a firm favourite as the coast gets
good waves and there are large stretches of unspoilt beaches with dunes.
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Croyde has managed to welcome hundreds of tourist-surfers
whilst maintaining the charm of a North Devon village, and it has what
I believe to be the best pub in England.
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Doing Coast, I fell in love with the weird, otherworldly
landscape of the Northern Irish coast. It's so much more than the Giant's
Causeway: that type of basalt geology continues for miles along the coast
and produces some quite breathtaking views.
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What is your favourite coastal activity?
Definitely surfing. It's something I've only discovered
recently and wish I'd got into much earlier!
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What is the best thing you've found at the coast?
I found an amazing fossil on the beach at Ravenscar near
Whitby, with impressions of fern fronds all over it.
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What hobbies do you have?
I love drawing and painting, and I've recently been doing
some pottery as well. I enjoy 'getting away from it all' in my camper
van. I also like volunteering on archaeological digs.
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Where do you holiday on the UK coast?
I remember fantastic holidays in my childhood when my
parents took me to Pembrokeshire, Cornwall and Dorset.
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I used to - and actually still do - love rock-pooling,
scrambling up rocky cliffs, putting my toes in the sea at the water's
edge, and collecting shells at the tide-line.
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What is your favourite seaside food?
Chips. When we filmed at Paviland Cave, I stayed at the
Gower in my camper van (with archaeologist and dog), and one night we
had chips from a fish and chip shop on the sea front - and sat on the
beach eating them with a full moon reflecting off the sea. Wonderful.
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I never go to the coast without...
My dog and my surfboard.
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What do you think is great about living in the
UK?
Easy - lots of coast to go to! And everywhere is actually
quite near to the coast.
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Mark Horton
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Mark Horton is Head of the Archaeology and Anthropology
Department at the University of Bristol and runs and teaches one of the
few postgraduate programmes in maritime archaeology and history.
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Having directed excavations all over the world - including
the Caribbean, East Africa, Egypt, France and the UK - Mark's recent projects
include an investigation of a Scottish colony in Panama; an early colonial
settlement on St Kitts, St Lucia and Bermuda; and the investigation of
trading ports in Zanzibar.
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In Britain, Mark excavated the burials of claimed 'slaves'
that were found on the beach at Ilfracombe in Devon, and has worked on
the Port of Bristol and its trading (and slaving) connections and the
industrial archaeology of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
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A keen sailor, Mark spends his spare time either dinghy-sailing
on the River Severn or restoring his historic 26-foot Maurice Griffiths-designed
yacht in London. He also has a rotting dhow in Lamu, Kenya.
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Mark has been a contributor to numerous TV archaeology
programmes, and was involved in the early days of Time Team as well as
the 91Èȱ¬ Scotland documentary on the Darien Disaster which was awarded
the Archaeological Programme of the Year in 2004.
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Recently he co-presented the 91Èȱ¬ TWO series Time Flyers.
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What have been the highs and lows while filming
Coast? The highs probably include trying not to destroy a very
expensive yacht off Hartland Point on the North Devon Coast. We were filming
a sequence, pretending to wreck the yacht and I had to make sure I wasn't
doing any damage to it!
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Another high has to be sailing a Bronze Age boat under
the Humber Bridge - ancient technology sailing underneath modern technology.
It was a replica boat and was 25 foot long - the planks had been sown
together with rope and there wasn't a nail in sight!
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What is your favourite UK coastal place and why?
The Severn Estuary at low tide. The sheer enormity of
it all is amazing. It has the second highest tidal range in the world
and watching the tide come in and all the mud and sand become a huge expanse
of water is wonderful.
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Also, as a result of making this programme, I've discovered
the most fabulous beaches off Harris - the total wilderness of it all
is astounding.
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What is your favourite coastal activity?
Sailing!
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What is the best thing you've found at the coast?
It's a bit strange to say, but probably the skeletons
of the claimed 'slaves' on the beach in Ilfracombe in Devon.
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What hobbies and other passions do you have?
I haven't any time for anything else other than sailing
and archaeology - that's it!
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Tell me about your family, home and pets.
I'm married with three teenage children and we live on
the edge of the Cotswolds.
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Where do you holiday on the UK coast?
We tend to go on excavations rather than holidays in the
summer, to fit around digs! We did all go on a family camping holiday
to Croyde in North Devon. The children wanted to go surfing so they did
that while I sat and watched!
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What is your favourite seaside food?
When we were filming off the East Coast of Scotland I
had scampi and chips at Arbroath, with real, proper pieces of scampi -
it was gorgeous!
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I never go to the coast without...
Sailing clothes and a life jacket, just in case I can
jump into a boat!
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What do you think is great about living in the
UK?
Wherever you are, it's not too far to go sailing on the
sea.
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Miranda Krestovnikoff
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A qualified zoologist, Miranda Krestovnikoff started her
television career as a researcher in the 91Èȱ¬'s prestigious Natural History
Unit.
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Since then she has presented several television series,
including 91Èȱ¬ TWO's Hidden Treasure.
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Her passion for wildlife started at an early age when
she began observing birds and bugs in the garden and keeping a veritable
menagerie at home.
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She's an experienced diver, and active outdoor girl,
enjoying sailing, swimming and cycling.
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Miranda writes for Diver magazine and makes regular appearances
at dive shows and clubs.
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Miranda, 32, lives just outside Bristol with her husband
and two chinchillas. They have just moved to a house in the countryside.
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What have been the highs and lows while filming
Coast? A real high was swimming with grey seals in the Farne
islands. It was quite incredible being face to face with an adult grey
seal and having it tug at my fins and look me in the eye. A couple of
months later we went back to see the grey seal pups which were all over
the islands. We just walked around and could literally go up to them and
stroke them!
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A low was our quest for porbeagle sharks off the coast
of Padstow. I was getting excited about catching a shark and tagging it
(not at all a threat to the shark). We spent three long days on the water
chumming for sharks but none turned up. It was hard work and really disappointing
- but you can't win all the time.
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What is your favourite UK coastal place and why?
Being a diver - I always go for good diving hotspots.
I have a particular fondness for Skomer as that is where I did my first
open water diving in the UK and I love all the puffins that nest there.
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One of the most beautiful locations we filmed at was Strangford
Lough in Northern Ireland. The lough is vast and the surrounding scenery
is absolutely stunning.
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I also spent two days on Lundy Island which was a real
treat - no traffic noise, no car alarms. We camped overnight but with
the dawn chorus and the sheep bleating, it was hard to sleep!
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What is your favourite coastal activity?
I'm a keen UK diver, and being underwater is always fascinating!
When you look at a landscape on land, you have some idea of what it might
contain and what sort of species will be there.
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But when you look at the sea you have no idea of what
will be underneath the water. It's a whole other world down there and
there's a lot to see in British waters, but it's quite an effort sometimes
as the water can be really cold!
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What is the best thing you've found at the coast?
We went rock-pooling in the Gower at Worm's Head and found
a dogfish egg (mermaid's purse). When you held it up to the light you
could see the baby dogfish inside - attached to a huge yolk that would
feed it for the few weeks before it hatched. This was seeing a shark before
birth - incredible!
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What hobbies do you have?
I love being outdoors - whatever the weather. Being a
zoologist, I enjoy anything to do with wildlife and nature so I spend
a lot of time in my garden looking for slow worms and grass snakes.
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I'm also a keen musician and play in a local orchestra
in Bristol which is great fun and quite demanding, especially when filming.
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Where do you holiday on the UK coast?
We have friends with a barn in a tiny hamlet about as
far west as you can get in South Wales. It's a fantastic spot right on
the cliff-top, and at night you can see the light of the lighthouse pulsing.
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As a child, I visited my grandparents who lived in Deganwy,
North Wales.
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I also love the Devon and Cornish coast near where my
mother-in-law lives. There's some fantastic rock-pooling there and great
mackerel fishing.
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What is your favourite seaside food?
I'm a big seafood lover and will eat anything as long
as it's fresh and I know how it was caught.
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I love to fish for mackerel and dive for scallops. I'm
not happy eating trawled scallops or bass, but line-caught from the locals
is great.
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I never go to the coast without...
A good rock-pooling/birding guide book, binoculars, waterproofs
and normally my dive gear.
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What do you think is great about being an island?
The UK has the most incredibly varied coastline and there's
a huge variety of wildlife that either live here, or come to breed or
over-winter. Whatever the time of year there's always something happening
of interest.
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Whether you're into diving, surfing, sailing, rock-pooling
or just sunbathing - there's a beach not a million miles away and you
can spend all day gazing out to sea and just lose yourself.
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Most of us can remember those summers spent building sand
castles and burying dad in the sand with just his head and toes showing!
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Neil Oliver
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Neil Oliver is a qualified archaeologist. His fieldwork
has spanned the millennia - from Stone Age remains in Scotland to Second
World War fortifications.
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If it's been buried in the ground during the last 10,000
years, Neil's dug it up!
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His passion for digging things up led Neil and his friend,
Tony Pollard, to South Africa where they excavated battlefields from the
Anglo-Zulu wars of 1879.
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Together they went on to bring British battles back to
life - from Bannockburn in 1314 to the Second World War for the 91Èȱ¬ TWO
series Two Men in a Trench.
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Also a journalist, Neil has written for publications including
The Guardian, The Scotsman and The Sun.
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Neil, 38, lives in Glasgow with his partner Trudi and
two-year- old daughter Evie, and is currently restoring
their Victorian town house.
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What have been the highs and lows while filming
Coast? One of the highs has to be what I've learnt! I consider
myself to be fairly well-informed about history but I was amazed at how
much I didn't know.
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Another high is the fact I've discovered that in every
part of the UK, you find someone worth talking to or something worth seeing.
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I don't think there have been any lows. It's been very
busy and quite tiring, but that wasn't a low because I've enjoyed it all
so much.
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What is your favourite UK coastal place and why?
I'm particularly stunned by Sutherland in the far north-
western side of Scotland; words can't describe how magical and beautiful
it is. Bettyhill, the town created by the Highland clearances is a favourite.
It's beautiful, bleak, dramatic and I felt really affected by it. I'd
go back in a minute to have a proper look around, and I felt kind of proud
of it.
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What is your favourite coastal activity?
Walking. But I like to make sure I have enough time to
have a proper look round.
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What is the best thing you've found at the coast?
When I was a student archaeologist, I went on a dig to
Ballantrae with Tom Affleck who was studying for his PhD and needed volunteers.
It was there that I found my future on the coast.
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Tom became a very good friend and inspired me to become
an archaeologist.
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What hobbies do you have?
I'm passionate about history, but not necessarily academic
history. Everywhere you go, people have been doing things for hundreds
of years, and places can tell so many stories about how things have changed.
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I also like films and the cinema, and enjoy reading.
I also love spending time with my partner and our little girl.
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Where do you holiday on the UK coast?
I remember Millport and Arran from Scottish childhood
holidays and going to the west coast of Scotland as a teenager with my
dad. We went to the Kyle of Lochalsh, Plockton and Ullapool.
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Trudi and I went to Cornwall a lot when we were students
and love it there, and I also like the Kent coast - we've recently discovered
Sandwich and Deal.
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What is your favourite seaside food?
Shellfish - any shellfish! From cockles and mussels to
crab and lobster. Delicious!
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I never go to the coast without...
Packing a waterproof! You need every item of clothing
that you possess when you go away in the UK as the weather is so changeable.
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What do you think is great about living in the
UK?
It's a world on its own I suppose. The fact that you are
never more than 72 miles from the coast and you're within a reasonable
proximity to the sea all of the time.
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