Nick Davidson

I’m fascinated by the world around me - in all its natural and human intricacies - and how it can be changed for the better. I’m interested in science, society, history, politics and the natural world.

I’m also interested in story-telling and turning complex issues into compelling narratives.

I’ve written on life and society in Britain. I’ve made natural history and environmental films in far-flung places across the globe from the Russian Far East to southern Africa to South America. And I’ve reported from conflict zones in Yugoslavia, Iraq, East Timor and the Congo.

I once believed life was about travel, adventure and conflict: as I’ve grown older and ‘wiser’ I now know it’s also about reflection, the pleasures of the apparently everyday and the small steps that go towards creating a fairer and more equal society.

My films have won awards for journalism, scientific and environmental reporting and creative film making.

My writing includes:

• The Black Report. A look at the failure of social policy in Britain and its effects on the nation’s health. Now a standard text on inequalities in health in Britain, Penguin. 1982. (With Peter Townsend)

• Out of Our Hands. Science and the new technologies of childbirth. Do they work: are they useful ? Pan/Channel 4. 1984. (With Jill Rakusen)

• A Question of Care, an investigation into Britain’s National Health Service. Michael Joseph 1988.

• The Greywacke. How a priest, a soldier and a school teacher uncovered 300 million years of the history. The discovery of the early geological history of the earth. Forthcoming. Profile. May 2021