About

A conservation biologist who started writing children’s books almost by accident

Martin Jenkins has spent more than three decades bringing the natural world to young readers — drawing on ten years of real fieldwork as a conservation biologist before he ever wrote a book for children.

From the field to the page

Martin was born in Surrey in 1959 and spent his early years in Spain, Ireland, and Kent before studying at Cambridge University. Rather than heading straight into publishing, he spent roughly ten years working as a conservation biologist at the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, and has worked freelance for conservation bodies including WWF and various UN agencies since 1990.

“An orchid-sleuth in Germany, a timber detective in Kenya, and an investigator of the chameleon trade in Madagascar.”

— Martin, describing the range of his conservation fieldwork

Books & recognition

He moved into children’s publishing after Walker Books asked him to advise on their Animals at Risk series — and has since become one of the more decorated names in UK children’s nonfiction. He has written more than fifty books, most published by Walker Books in the UK and Candlewick Press in the US, built around natural history and conservation themes. Notable titles include The Emperor’s Egg, Can We Save the Tiger?, Ape, Chameleons Are Cool, Fabulous Frogs, Puffin, and Life: The First Four Billion Years. He’s also written prose retellings of two illustrated classics — Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver and an adaptation of Don Quixote — both illustrated by Chris Riddell.

The Emperor’s Egg won the Times Junior Information Book of the Year Award, and Fly Traps! Plants that Bite Back was shortlisted for the same prize. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver won the 2004 Kate Greenaway Medal — though that award recognizes illustration, so it credits Chris Riddell’s artwork rather than Martin’s text, even though both names appear on the book.

Martin splits his time between Cambridge and London.