Items17The creator’s order
  1. 1Mary AnningMary AnningBorn 21 May 1799Mary Anning hunted fossils on the cliffs at Lyme Regis from childhood to support her poor family, and with her brother uncovered the first ichthyosaur skeleton to be correctly identified, followed by the first nearly complete plesiosaurs in the 1820s. Leading geologists bought her finds and sought…0i
  2. 2Patrick MoorePatrick MooreBorn 4 Mar 1923Patrick Moore was an amateur astronomer without a degree who spent decades mapping the Moon through his own telescopes in his Sussex garden. That obsession led to The Sky at Night, which he presented from 1957 until his death in 2012, and dozens of popular books. Professional astronomers respected…0i
  3. 3Fred DibnahFred DibnahBorn 28 Apr 1938Fred Dibnah was a Bolton steeplejack with a lifelong passion for steam engines and Victorian engineering, which he restored in his own back garden. A 1979 BBC documentary about his work demolishing mill chimneys made him an unlikely star, and his later series on Britain's industrial heritage taught…0i
  4. 4Bill OddieBill OddieBorn 7 Jul 1941Bill Oddie first became famous as one of The Goodies, but he had been a dedicated birdwatcher since childhood and wrote Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book in 1980. His second public life as a wildlife presenter, including fronting Springwatch, came directly from that expertise, and he campaigned…0i
  5. 5Bob RossBob RossBorn 29 Oct 1942Bob Ross was a US Air Force master sergeant who learnt the quick wet-on-wet oil technique from the television painter Bill Alexander and practised it relentlessly, selling paintings on the side. The Joy of Painting ran on American public television from 1983 to 1994, producing 403 episodes, each…0i
  6. 6Steve IrwinSteve IrwinBorn 22 Feb 1962Steve Irwin grew up at his parents' reptile park in Queensland, catching crocodiles for relocation from his teens. That hands-on knowledge became The Crocodile Hunter, which from 1996 was shown around the world, and he used the fame to buy land for conservation through his family's Australia Zoo.…0i
  7. 7Will ShortzWill ShortzBorn 26 Aug 1952Will Shortz designed his own degree in enigmatology, the study of puzzles, at Indiana University in 1974, believed to be the only one ever awarded. He became crossword editor of The New York Times in 1993 and has been the puzzlemaster on National Public Radio since 1987. His obsession with puzzles…0i
  8. 8Susie DentSusie DentSusie Dent is a lexicographer who worked on English dictionaries before joining Countdown's Dictionary Corner in 1992, where she has adjudicated words for more than three decades. Her books on word origins and her daily word posts have made etymology a mainstream pastime. She shows how a specialist…0i
  9. 9Ken JenningsKen JenningsBorn 23 May 1974Ken Jennings was a software engineer in Utah and a lifelong trivia obsessive when he won 74 consecutive games of Jeopardy! in 2004, a record that made him a household name. He turned the fame into books about maps, trivia and pop culture, and in 2021 became one of the show's hosts. His career is…0i
  10. 10Paul StametsPaul StametsBorn 17 Jul 1955Paul Stamets became obsessed with mushrooms as a student, identified several new species and built a business selling cultivation supplies and mushroom products. His book Mycelium Running (2005) and the documentary Fantastic Fungi (2019) brought fungi to a huge audience. Some mycologists are…0i