Pete is a lifelong naturalist, and an experienced lecturer, writer and broadcaster. He holds an MSc in wildlife conservation from University College London.

He enjoys sharing his experience and passion about birds, plants, insects, and about the history of the planet and the forces that have made our wildlife what it is.

After an early career as a chartered accountant in the 1970’s, Pete’s work has always revolved around the environment. He worked for Friends of the Earth from 1976 to 1979, and was Director of the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth from 1980 to 1986. Following that, Pete was Director of the Kent Wildlife Trust from 1987 to 1998; and more recently has worked in local government in Kent, taking retirement in 2015. .

He has given numerous slide lectures in the UK; lecture tours of Australia, Germany and Holland; over 150 wildlife radio programmes on Radio Kent; and over 30 lecture cruises, primarily to Scandinavia, Scotland and the Arctic but also to the Mediterranean, Canada and the Amazon. He has led expeditions to the remoter parts of Scotland, Iceland, the Faeroes and the Canaries.

In 1990 Pete wrote the ‘Rough Guide to Mediterranean Wildlife’, and co-authored ‘Wild Kent’ in 1997.

Pete’s lectures are about wildlife in all its forms, and he always tries to make them relevant to the countries being visited on the cruise.

1. Life on the edge
How wildlife survives in the Arctic. Species such polar bears, reindeer and arctic foxes all have to survive in extreme conditions – so how do they do it and how have they evolved to be successful?

2. Why did Darwin wait?
The young Charles Darwin arrived back from the Voyage of the Beagle in 1836 with the idea of evolution already formed in his mind. Yet it wasn’t until 1859 that he published the Origin of Species –why did he wait so long?

3. Around the world in 4.6 billion years
The making of planet Earth – the rocks, volcanoes and glaciers that have made our planet what it is.

4. Wildlife in Art
From the early cave paintings 35 thousand years ago to Damien Hirst’s shark pickled in formalin, nature has inspired art through the centuries. This richly illustrated talk looks at paintings and sculptures and the themes that lie behind them.

5. Gannets, gulls and guillemots
The seabirds of the north Atlantic – how to identify them, where they live and breed, and how they make their living.

6. From the depths of the ocean.
From Jonah to Moby Dick, whales and dolphins have intrigued and fascinated us. This talk covers their natural history, the story of their hunting and conservation, and how they have appeared in our popular culture.

7. From orchids to scorpions
The Mediterranean is not just a destination for tourists – it is full of colourful and varied wildlife that has to survive the baking summers and cool winters.

8. Not just for the birds
The wonders of migration - birds do it, whales do it, reindeer do it, even moths do it. But why do animals travel thousands of miles every year, and how do they find their way there and back?

9. The Amazon - the great river
The Amazon pours as much water into the Atlantic in one day as the Thames does in 10 years, and is home to 30% of all species on the planet. What an astounding place!

10. Life in the woods
Rainforests worldwide cover only 2% of the planet yet they contain half of all the world's species and have the greatest species diversity of any habitat on Earth. This talk explores the wildlife of rainforests from Australia to Africa and South America.

11. Dead as the Dodo
The species living on earth now make up less than one thousandth of all the species that have ever lived. Why and how have so many species become extinct?

12. Poles apart.
There are polar bears and puffins around the North Pole, and penguins and albatrosses around the South Pole. This talk explores why the Poles and their wildlife are so startlingly different

13. Cape to Cape on the Barque Europa.
This talk describes an adventurous voyage I did on a tall ship from Cape Horn to the Cape of Good Hope via the Antarctic in early 2017.

14. Birdmen of the Atlantic.
The extraordinary lives of the people of St Kilda, Britain's most remote inhabited island until it was evacuated in 1930.

15. The Making of the Med.
How the geology and landscapes of the Med have been created over millions of years.

Pete has been lecturing on cruises since 2000, primarily with Fred Olsen, Saga, Viking and Noble Caledonia.
Pete always makes his lectures relevant to where the ship is cruising to and to the wildlife that can be seen there. He has talked on cruises to Greenland, Iceland, the Baltic, Svalbard, round Britain, the Norwegian fjords, the Amazon, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.

2023 Saga Spirit of Adventure SU083 round Britain
2023 Saga Spirit of the Danube Bucharest to Black Sea.
2023 Viking Sky OSK 230324 Athens to Venice
2022 Viking Venus OVE 220325 round UK to Norway and return
2021 Cunard Queen Elizabeth Q126P round UK
2019 Saga Sapphire SA373 to Norway
2019 Fred Olsen Braemar M1903 to Amazon and Caribbean
2018 Saga Sapphire SA357 to transatlantic to Canada
2018 Fred Olsen Braemar M1810 to northern Spain
2017 Fred. Olsen Black Watch W1713 to Greenland and Iceland
2016 Saga Pearl 2 P 2155 to Baltic and the Gulf of Bothnia
2015 Fred. Olsen Braemar M1513 to the Baltic
2014 Fred. Olsen Balmoral L1413 to Canada.

And every year before that back to 2000.

The following recent Cruise History has been recorded for this candidate.