Himalayan Kidnap

Jane Wilson-Howarth is a physician with qualifications in zoology and parasite biology, who loves animals, wild places, and cycling. She lived in Nepal for six years and speaks Nepali - but not very well. My passion for wildlife began early. I used to smuggle roadkill into the house despite my mother's preference for flowers. A fascination with nature started with pond-dipping; while other girls were experimenting with makeup and exploring the impact on the boys of rolling up the waistbands of their skirts to show more leg, I was nerdily nose-down in our garden pond, learning about reproductive behaviour in minuscule cyclops and water-fleas. This interest grew and blossomed through fossil collecting and hamster breeding. In between times I swam a great deal and learned to sail. My ecological passion persisted and I signed up to study zoology in Plymouth. This was a perfect place for me because of the proximity of the sea, various rivers and Dartmoor. I learned to SCUBA dive there and even did some sub-aquatic ecological surveys. I indulged in all possible water sports, including white-water canoeing and cave diving. One summer while still an undergraduate, I joined a big ecological team cataloguing the flora and fauna of Shetland; I 'did' the invertebrates. After graduating, I organised an overland trip to Nepal. That first expedition provided my first astonishing glimpses of sub-tropical wildlife which made me enthusiastic about sharing the wonders of the natural world with others. Some authors have always known they would write, but that desire has rather crept up on me. My dyslexia made me reticent. I was a late starter and it was a long time before I developed the confidence to write for people outside my circle of family and friends. Travel gave me a particular loathing of leeches and parasites, as well as an indignation about inequality of access to health care. Ultimately this pushed me towards becoming medically qualified. My blundering language forays have made me privy to a wealth of fascinating cultural material some of which appears in my writing particularly on Nepal. Himalayan Kidnap is my seventh book and the third to be set in Nepal. For the moment I live in East Anglia and work as a general practitioner for about 30-hours a week, which is considered half-time. I have plans to return to work in Nepal soon.