Robert Vennell is an ecologist and best-selling natural history author. His first book The Meaning of Trees was listed as one of the best non-fiction books of 2019 by Canvas, Newsroom and The Listener and was longlisted for an Ockham New Zealand Book Award. His second book Secrets of the Sea was selected as a finalist in the illustrated non-fiction category of the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2023. His latest – The Forgotten Forest – explores the hidden world of mushrooms, mosses and moulds and is out on October 5th. He works as a curator in the Natural Science department at Auckland Museum.