David Mountain is a writer based in Edinburgh. After studying biology and geology at the University of Bristol he became a scientific editor at an environmental NGO, working - somewhat to his own surprise - in the savannahs of central Kenya and the gardens of suburban Java to tackle the pressing environmental problem of invasive species. He has since studied the politics of nationalism at the University of Edinburgh, and has devoted more time to exploring, and writing about, the past. He is fascinated and infuriated in equal measure by history, politics and philosophy, and can't resist pointing out the flaws and contradictions in how we think we understand the world.