I am an Academic Fellow at the Climatic Research Unit, within the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA, where I have worked since 1990 (initially as a Research Associate and then as a Senior Research Associate). My main research interests are concerned with identifying variations in climate (as observed, modelled and recorded in climate proxies) and understanding their causes (in terms of natural and anthropogenic climate processes). Most recently, I have investigated natural climate variability over the last 1000 years or so, using measurements of tree-rings and other climate "proxies" to estimate past changes in temperature across the Northern Hemisphere, together with climate model simulations to relate these changes to natural forcing factors such as variations in volcanic activity or solar irradiance. In 2004, I received the Hugh Robert Mill Award and Medal from the Royal Meteorological Society, in recognition of my research into the variability of daily rainfall characteristics -- including the identification of increased intensity of winter rainfall over the UK during the final decades of the 20th century. I have also investigated changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation, finding that greenhouse-gas-induced climate change is likely to be associated with a strengthening of the westerly circulation over the Atlantic and European region that may have begun to influence our climate already. Further information is available about the Climatic Research Unit and my research interests.