My research is concerned with the reconstruction of climatic and environmental change on timescales ranging from centuries to millions of years.  I use natural ‘archives’, mainly lake sediments, to generate quantitative information about the past. My recent work has focussed firstly, on climate variability in low-latitude regions and secondly, on rapid climate change. My interest in low-latitude regions began with my doctoral work in Northern India and I have subsequently undertaken research into effective precipitation and monsoon variability in the Northern Neotropics, in North and West Africa and in Western China. My work on rapid climate change events has included investigation into the causes and impacts of the abrupt cooling that affected the northern hemisphere around 8200 years ago, a climatic event that has attracted considerable scientific and policy interest.