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University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a Red brick university, red brick Russell Group research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Society of Merchant Venturers, Merchant Venturers' sc ...

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Julian Hector Julian Hector (born 1958) is a British television and radio producer and executive who was Head of the BBC Natural History Unit. During his career, he has been producer of '' David Attenborough's Life Stories'' on BBC Radio 4, producer of the '' ...

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Mary Colwell is an environmentalist and freelance producer and author. She previously worked for the

BBC Natural History Unit The BBC Studios Natural History Unit (NHU) is a department of BBC Studios that produces television, radio and online content with a natural history or wildlife theme. It is best known for its highly regarded nature documentaries, including '' ...

Early life

Colwell's mother was

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

from Northern Ireland, and her father was an Anglican from Stoke-on-Trent. She grew up near

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement in Staffordshire and is surroun ...

, and was raised as a Catholic. She initially studied physics, but later earth sciences at the

Career

Producer

In 2009 Colwell was awarded a

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

Radio Award and a World Gold Medal at the New York Festivals Radio Awards for her production "The Budgerigar and the Prisoner", telling the story of a prisoner Les whose life was transformed by caring for a

budgerigar The budgerigar ( ; ''Melopsittacus undulatus''), also known as the common parakeet or shell parakeet, is a small, long-tailed, seed-eating parrot usually nicknamed the budgie ( ), or in American English, the parakeet. Budgies are the only spe ...

Writer

In 2014, Colwell published a book on Scottish-American naturalist

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist ...

, called ''John Muir: The Scotsman Who Saved America’s Wild Places''. In an interview for

A Rocha A Rocha is an international network of environmental organizations with Christian ethos. A Rocha, which means "the rock" in Portuguese (see entry '' Rocha''), was founded in Portugal in 1983. Organisation The organization network is constitute ...

's ''Root & Branch'' magazine, Colwell called Muir her "absolute conservation hero". In 2016, Colwell did a walk from

Lough Erne Lough Erne ( , ) is the name of two connected lakes in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is the second-biggest lake system in Northern Ireland and Ulster, and the fourth biggest in Ireland. The lakes are widened sections of the River Erne, ...

, near

Enniskillen Enniskillen ( , from ga, Inis Ceithleann , ' Ceithlenn's island') is the largest town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the middle of the county, between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of 13,823 ...

Boston, Lincolnshire Boston is a market town and inland port in the borough of the same name in the county of Lincolnshire, England. Boston is north of London, north-east of Peterborough, east of Nottingham, south-east of Lincoln, south-southeast of Hull ...

, to raise awareness of the endangerment of the

Eurasian Curlew The Eurasian curlew or common curlew (''Numenius arquata'') is a very large wader in the family Scolopacidae. It is one of the most widespread of the curlews, breeding across temperate Europe and Asia. In Europe, this species is often referred ...

(Numenius arquata) in the British Isles. In 2018, she released a book titled ''Curlew Moon'', as an account of her self-titled "Curlew Walk" and the plight of the bird; it made ''

Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper and online publication which is owned by Independent News & Media (INM), a subsidiary of Mediahuis. The newspaper version often includes glossy magazines. Traditionally a broadsheet n ...

's'' best non-fiction list of 2018.

Activism

Colwell is a noted spokesperson for environmentalism in the United Kingdom and has written articles on the subject the main newspapers. She was listed at number 27 in ''

BBC Wildlife Magazine ''BBC Wildlife'' is a British glossy, all-colour magazine about wildlife, operated and published by Immediate Media Company. It produces 13 issues a year. ''BBC Wildlife'' was launched in January 1963 as ''Animals Magazine'', edited by filmmaker ...

s ''Top 50 Most Influential Conservationists'' in the UK, and has received various awards for her work on promoting environmentalism. Colwell was one of three recipients of the 2019 Marsh Award from the

Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) is an international wildfowl and wetland conservation charity in the United Kingdom. Its patron is Charles III, and its president is Kate Humble. History The WWT was founded in 1946 by the ornithologist ...

for her activism around the Curlew including engaging political support from Downing Street (who called the Curlew, "the panda of UK conservation"), and promoting April 21 as World Curlew Day. Colwell has campaigned with politician

Caroline Lucas Caroline Patricia Lucas (born 9 December 1960) is a British politician who has twice led the Green Party of England and Wales and has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brighton Pavilion since the 2010 general election. She was re-electe ...

to have Natural History included as a

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private s ...

exam on the national curriculum, and in May 2020, she told ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' it would be taught in schools by 2022. In October 2020, a final proposal was submitted to the

Department for Education The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England. A Departmen ...

Personal

Colwell is married to BBC producer

, and they have two sons (Hector has three daughters from a previous marriage). Colwell's faith is an important part of her life, and she describes herself as a Christian.

Works

Articles, interviews, and podcasts

* * * * *

Bibliography

* * *

References

External links

Mary Colwell - Earth in Vision

OpenLearn OpenLearn is an educational website. It is the UK's Open University's contribution to the open educational resources (OER) project and the home of free, open learning from The Open University. The original project was part-funded by the Will ...

(13 July 2016) {{DEFAULTSORT:Colwell, Mary Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of the University of Bristol British environmentalists BBC radio producers BBC television producers English conservationists English naturalists English environmentalists British women environmentalists British women non-fiction writers 21st-century English women writers Living people Women radio producers