I was born and bred in the Fen and through the inspiration of my chemistry teacher, Dr S.A. Cotton, and my 3 uncles, all of whom studied Chemistry at the University of Nottingham, I became interested in Chemistry. I graduated with a BSc(Hons) from Imperial College in 1987 and was awarded the Neil Arnott prize from the University of London. I stayed at IC to do my PhD with Professor Steve Ley on the Synthesis of Insect Antifeedants and was awarded the Edmund White research prize in 1990 (shared with Alan Armstrong). I secured a postdoctoral fellowship from The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 to stay a further year with Prof Ley, before securing a SERC/NATO postdoctoral research fellowship to work with Professor Dave Evans at Harvard University, USA (1991-3). I was appointed to a lectureship in Chemistry at the University of Sheffield in 1993. In 1998 I was promoted to Senior Lecturer and obtained an EPSRC Advanced Fellowship. I moved to a Readership at the University of Nottingham in 1999 and was promoted to a personal chair in 2003. In 2009 I moved to my present position at UCL, Alexander Williamson Professor of Chemistry. I was head of Organic Chemistry 2009-2017.