Simon Camm spent much of his youth walking the cliffs of Cornwall. Later, as a geologist, mineral exploration manager and consultant in Europe, Asia, the Far East and Africa, he saw geology from the 'inside', in underground mines and drill core. He was Honorary Research Fellow of the Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter, and Visiting Fellow in Mining Geology at the University of Greenwich. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, author of Cornish Rocks and Minerals (Alison Hodge), Gold in the Counties of Cornwall and Devon, and co-author and author of numerous scientific papers.