Rupert Wilkey grew up in Kenya and Malawi and caught his first snake at the age of twelve. Since then, he has spent the past fifty years studying the reptiles and amphibians of Africa. In 1996, Rupert was made a Founder Fellow of the Zoological Society of London, and in 1998, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He has been part of numerous expeditions in Africa and recently worked with the University of Marrakech Cadi Ayyad, collecting DNA samples from reptile species in the Atlas Mountains. In 2020, he won the Cambridge University Student Led Teaching Award for Inclusive Practice. As an accomplished author, he has written extensively on reptiles and African history. He is a member of both the Royal Society of Literature and the Society of Authors.