John on John Adapted from his web site John Butler’s Landscape Photography http://www.jbutler.org.uk I'm in my late fifties, and I live in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, England. I've always lived in this area. I was schooled at Shefford, then Stratton Grammar School here in Biggleswade from age eleven. From there I went straight to the City University, London, where I got myself a degree in physics. Until recently I worked in higher education - specifically, in the Psychology department of one of London's newer universities. I don't teach, I'm one of the support staff. It's an ill-defined job but it involves a lot of admin, some IT, a little electronics and audio-visual work, and a thousand and one mundane tasks such as un-jamming the photocopier and maintaining a constant supply of ballpoint pens. The students are a great bunch and they make the job thoroughly worthwhile. I've been there since 1991. Before that I was in the electronics industry, working for the first British company ever to build a computer around a microprocessor. It was exciting at first but it was ultimately a sad tale - the company got sold, then sidelined, then restructured, then taken over by bureaucrats and accountants who ultimately destroyed it. I'm sick of industry and I would never go back. The big influences of my childhood were the space race, the golden age of British TV and the beginnings of British pop music (the Beatles and their contemporaries). I was never the sporty type and preferred to stay in and read or watch TV rather than go out and kick a ball about. I was an avid consumer of science books, sci-fi novels, and TV programmes such as Dr Who and Thunderbirds. I also had a fascination for finding out how things worked. All this translated into an interest in science and technology and reading. I had starry-eyed plans to work for the BBC but was turned down due to defective colour vision. Photography developed as a sideline. What I can't pinpoint is where my enthusiasm for the great outdoors came from, but there's no doubt that nowadays it's a consuming interest. I've lost touch with modern music but I'm a keen and avaricious fan of comedy - whether it's in written form, or on TV or radio, or live on stage. Every year since 1980 I've spent at least a week at the Edinburgh Festival, where I literally pig myself out on live, cutting-edge comedy. It's the highlight of my year, every year.