Tony Soper

Tony Soper is a naturalist with an infectious enthusiasm for seagoing birds, seals and whales. After a first career as a wildlife film maker for the BBC's Natural History Unit he now travels the world in search of wilderness islands and their wildlife.

Long regarded in Britain as 'Mr Birdwatch', his fourteen books include monographs on Owls and Penguins; his back-garden Bird Table Book is an international best-seller and his field guides to the Arctic and the Antarctic are in every polar travellers baggage.

He has presented many television films for BBC and National Geographic. But in a parallel career he was one of the pioneers of expedition cruising, with over forty years of experience running small vessels on birding cruises as well as lecturing on everything from seaside tripper-boats to the largest and grandest cruise ships.He is an enthusiastic diver and small-boat sailor.

He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Plymouth and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. His wife Hilary is a geographer and painter; they have two sons, one a seagoing expedition leader, the other a BBC producer