ABOUT

^{I look to the animal kingdom to understand our species. I think of zoology as a mirror we can hold up to offer a fresh perspective on what it means to be human.}

^{I have worked in the BBC Science Department making programmes broadcast across all four BBC channels and abroad. Mostly, I produced episodes for their flagship series Horizon across diverse subjects: from hidden ecosystems in The Secret Life of Caves and The Lost World of Lake Vostok, to ancient hominids in The Mystery of the Human Hobbit, and more distant ancestors, such as those that crawled out of the Devonian seas to colonise the land in The Missing Link. I also covered medicine and health in Sexual Chemistry, We Love Cigarettes, The Atkins Diet (a Royal Television Society nomination for Best Science Documentary), and SARS: The True Story, during which I filmed the World Health Organisation fight our planet’s first coronavirus pandemic.}

^{I have made wildlife documentaries for National Geographic, The Discovery Channel, and the BBC, including the Emmy-award-winning Sonora Desert: A Violent Eden and The Forbidden Fruit, which was a finalist at Jackson Hole, won at Munich Filmfest, and received Best of Festival at the Japan Wildlife Film Festival. I worked for Oxford Scientific Films, a company renowned for pioneering camera techniques to reveal invisible worlds. We used macro lenses to capture the microscopic details of bees implanting stings and lipstick cameras to access subterranean rattlesnake dens. We used infrared video to see grasshopper mice in the dark and ultraviolet film to expose the secret patterns of flowers. We used timelapse and lockshot photography to accelerate time and compress days or months into seconds, as well as high-speed cameras to expand time, catching bats swooping on saguaro cacti and seed pods exploding in slow motion.}

^{My books draw on all these experiences: on the narrative techniques I learned making documentaries, on the marvel of wildlife films, and on my academic training. Dawkins once wrote: 'There is an anaesthetic of familiarity, a sedative of ordinariness which dulls the senses and hides the wonder of existence.' I believe that the natural world can reframe our own world in a way that
allows us to recapture this lost sense of wonder.}

︎︎︎BOOKS

JACKIE HIGGINS

︎ABOUT

^{I look to the animal kingdom to understand our species. I think of zoology as a mirror we can hold up to offer a fresh perspective on what it means to be human.}

^{Growing up by the sea in Cornwall meant that my fascination with nature started at a young age. At Oxford University, I was tutored by Richard Dawkins. Studying animal behaviour, evolution, ecology, and conservation, amongst other things, I graduated with an MA in Zoology. Later, I also studied art history, specialising with an MA in Photography.

I have worked in the BBC Science Department making programmes broadcast across all four BBC channels and abroad. Mostly, I produced episodes for their flagship series Horizon across diverse subjects: from hidden ecosystems in The Secret Life of Caves and The Lost World of Lake Vostok, to ancient hominids in The Mystery of the Human Hobbit, and more distant ancestors, such as those that crawled out of the Devonian seas to colonise the land in The Missing Link. I also covered medicine and health in Sexual Chemistry, We Love Cigarettes, The Atkins Diet (a Royal Television Society nomination for Best Science Documentary), and SARS: The True Story, during which I filmed the World Health Organisation fight our planet’s first coronavirus pandemic.

I have made wildlife documentaries for National Geographic, The Discovery Channel, and the BBC, including the Emmy-award-winning Sonora Desert: A Violent Eden and The Forbidden Fruit, which was a finalist at Jackson Hole, won at Munich Filmfest, and received Best of Festival at the Japan Wildlife Film Festival. I worked for Oxford Scientific Films, a company renowned for pioneering camera techniques to reveal invisible worlds. We used macro lenses to capture the microscopic details of bees implanting stings and lipstick cameras to access subterranean rattlesnake dens. We used infrared video to see grasshopper mice in the dark and ultraviolet film to expose the secret patterns of flowers. We used timelapse and lockshot photography to accelerate time and compress days or months into seconds, as well as high-speed cameras to expand time, catching bats swooping on saguaro cacti and seed pods exploding in slow motion.

My books draw on all these experiences: on the narrative techniques I learned making documentaries, on the marvel of wildlife films, and on my academic training. Dawkins once wrote: 'There is an anaesthetic of familiarity, a sedative of ordinariness which dulls the senses and hides the wonder of existence.' I believe that the natural world can reframe our own world in a way that allows us to recapture this lost sense of wonder.}