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Mary Colwell

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Mary Colwell
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Bristol
Employers
  • Freelance
  • (was BBC Natural History Unit)
SpouseJulian Hector
Websitewww.curlewaction.com
Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata)

Mary Colwell is an award-winning environmentalist author and producer. She previously worked for the BBC Natural History Unit. She is founder and director of the charity Curlew Action[1] and Chair of the Curlew Recovery Partnership England,[2] a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs initiated roundtable dedicated to reversing the decline of the Eurasian Curlew.

Early life[edit]

Colwell's mother was Roman Catholic from Northern Ireland, and her father was an Anglican from Stoke-on-Trent.[3] She grew up near Stoke-on-Trent, and was raised as a Catholic.[4] She studied sciences at both the University of Manchester and the University of Bristol, graduating from Bristol in 1986.

Career[edit]

Producer[edit]

Colwell has produced numerous documentaries, one-off features and series for BBC Radio 4 including The Natural History Programme, Shared Planet with Monty Don[5], Natural Histories[6], Living World[7] as well as presented programmes of her own such as The Nature of Creativity[8] on Radio 3 and A Life With….[9] On Radio 4.

She has produced nature documentaries for Wildlife on One, Natural World, British Isles – A Natural History, Planet Earth: The Future, Bill Oddie's How to Watch Wildlife and the BBC 4 series, Walk on the Wild Side.

In 2007 she won the Garden Writers' Guild Award for best radio documentary for her series “Gardens of Faith[10]”, five 15 minute programmes on how a world faith demonstrates its belief in their garden design.

In 2009 Colwell was awarded a Sony Radio Academy Gold Award for Best Podcast, the first award of its kind, for her production "The Budgerigar and the Prisoner", telling the story of a prisoner Les whose life was transformed by caring for a budgerigar.[11][12] It also won a New York Radio Festival Gold medal.[13]

Writer[edit]

In 2014, Lion Husdson published Colwell’s book on the Scottish-American naturalist John Muir, called John Muir: The Scotsman Who Saved America’s Wild Places.[3] It is the only British biography of John Muir.

In 2016, Colwell undertook a 500 miles (800 km) walk from Lough Erne, near Enniskillen to Boston, Lincolnshire, to find out why the Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata) is declining so rapidly across Britain and Ireland.[3][14] In 2018 Curlew Moon,[15] was published by William Collins as an account of her self-titled "Curlew Walk" and the plight of the bird.[16][17] it made Irish Independent's best non-fiction list of 2018.[18]

In 2021 her third book Beak, Tooth and Claw[19] was also published by William Collins. Her fourth book, The Gathering Place,[20] was published by Bloomsbury in 2023 and was shortlisted on the Stanford’s best travel book of 2024. It details Colwell’s 500-mile pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago in between lockdowns in the autumn of 2020.

Activism[edit]

In October 2017 she was awarded the Dilys Breese Medal by the BTO for outstanding science communication, in 2018, the David Bellamy Award from the National Gamekeepers' Organisation [21]for her conservation work on curlews and in 2019, the WWT Marsh Award for Outstanding Contribution to Wetland Conservation.[22] In 2022 she was awarded the RSPB Medal for her outstanding contribution to conservation.[23]

In March 2021 she was appointed chair of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs initiated Curlew Recovery Partnership England,[2] a roundtable of organisations charged with restoring Curlews, their habitats and associated wildlife across England. In 2020 she set up the charity, Curlew Action[1] and established World Curlew Day.[24] She led the successful campaign to establish a GCSE in Natural History,[25] announced by the government in April 2022.[26]

Colwell is a spokesperson for environmentalism in the United Kingdom and writes articles on the subject in journals, magazines and newspapers.[27][28] She was listed in BBC Wildlife Magazine's Top 50 Most Influential Conservationists in the UK,[4][29] and as one of the most influential conservationists by the ENDS report in 2023.[30]

Colwell has campaigned with politician Caroline Lucas and educationist Tim Oates [31]to establish a GCSE in Natural History.

Personal[edit]

Colwell is married to BBC producer Julian Hector, and they have two sons (Hector has three daughters from a previous marriage).[3]

Colwell's faith is an important part of her life, and she describes herself as a Christian.[4][32]

Works[edit]

Articles, interviews, and podcasts[edit]

  • Colwell, Mary (13 July 2016). "Mary Colwell - Earth in Vision". OpenLearn. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  • —————— (10 October 2018). "A forestry boom is turning Ireland into an ecological dead zone". TheGuardian.com. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  • —————— (22 August 2019). Charlie (ed.). "Podcast: Mary Colwell — Curlews, GCSEs, and John Muir". The WAR ON WILDLIFE Project. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  • ——————; MacMath, Terence Handley (27 May 2016). "Interview: Mary Colwell, producer, writer, and conservationist". Church Times. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  • —————— (21 March 2016). SARX (ed.). "The Secrets Whispered in Every Living Being". SARX. Retrieved 23 January 2021.

Bibliography[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Bradley, Ellen. "Curlew Action – Action Now for Curlews Tomorrow". Curlew Action. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  2. ^ a b "About Us | Curlew Recovery Partnership". Curlewrecovery. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d Handley MacMath, Terrence (27 May 2016). "Interview: Mary Colwell, producer, writer, and conservationist". Church Times. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  4. ^ a b c "Interview with Mary Colwell". A Rocha. 4 November 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  5. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - Shared Planet". BBC. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  6. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - Natural Histories". BBC. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  7. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - Living World". BBC. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  8. ^ "BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, The Nature of Creativity". BBC. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  9. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - A Life With ..." BBC. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  10. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - Gardens of Faith - Episode guide". BBC. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  11. ^ "Gold for local Catholic Church". BBC. 13 May 2009. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  12. ^ "Gold for Bristol-based podcast". BBC. 11 July 2009. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  13. ^ "Gold for Bristol-based podcast". 11 July 2009. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  14. ^ "Where have all our curlews gone? (And the corncrakes!)". Meath Chronicle. 6 May 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  15. ^ Colwell, Mary (19 April 2018). Curlew Moon. William Collins. ISBN 978-0008241056. OCLC 1035290266.
  16. ^ Crampton, Caroline (3 May 2018). "Curlew Moon by Mary Colwell review – a pilgrimage for the wading bird". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  17. ^ Cocker, Mark (2 June 2018). "Curlew Moon by Mary Coldwell: Wading to extinction". The Spectator. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  18. ^ "From history to politics, nature to science, cookery to music - the best non-fiction of 2018". Irish Independent. 15 December 2018. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  19. ^ "Beak, Tooth and Claw: Living with Predators in Britain". William Collins. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  20. ^ Colwell, Mary (2024). The Gathering Place. Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781399400541.
  21. ^ "Curlew conservationist wins prestigious Bellamy Award". www.nationalgamekeepers.org.uk. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  22. ^ "Marsh Charitable Trust – Marsh Award for Outstanding Contribution to Wetland Conservation". www.marshcharitabletrust.org. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  23. ^ "Curlew conservationist wins prestigious award". BirdGuides. 24 October 2022. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  24. ^ Bradley, Ellen (10 December 2021). "World Curlew Day". Curlew Action. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  25. ^ Examinations), OCR (Oxford Cambridge and RSA. "GCSE Natural History Hub". teach.ocr.org.uk. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  26. ^ "The new Natural History GCSE and how we're leading the way in climate and sustainability education – your questions answered – The Education Hub". educationhub.blog.gov.uk. 25 April 2022. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  27. ^ Colwell, Mary (28 May 2018). "The bloody truth about conservation: we need to talk about killing". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  28. ^ Colwell, Mary (10 October 2018). "A forestry boom is turning Ireland into an ecological dead zone". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  29. ^ "Gamekeepers Meet Prince Charles At Highgrove House". The Yorkshire Times. 23 February 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  30. ^ "Power List 2023: the UK's 100 most influential environmental professionals". www.endsreport.com. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  31. ^ "The path to a Natural History GCSE". www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  32. ^ "Mary Colwell - Working With the Workers". Lauriston Jesuit Centre. Archived from the original on 19 May 2015.

External links[edit]

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