John Ironmonger: Tackling Climate Change via Fiction

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Leeds Inspired

John Ironmonger: Tackling Climate Change via Fiction

10th June 2026

John Ironmonger was born and grew up in East Africa. He has a doctorate in zoology, and was once an expert on freshwater leeches. He is the author of ‘The Good Zoo Guide’ and the novels ‘The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder’ (shortlisted for the 2012 Costa First Novel Prize and the Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize), ‘The Coincidence Authority’ and ‘The Whale at the End of the World’ (an international bestseller). He has also been part of a world record team for speed reading Shakespeare, has driven across the Sahara in a £100 banger, and once met Jared Diamond in a forest in the middle of Sumatra.