By Mark Green

Last updated 11:14, Friday, 07 November 2008

Ann Lackie is a scientist, author, weaver and parasite expert with an interest in embalming... “Parasites are very beautiful actually. Many of them are extraordinarily beautiful,” she says clapping her hands, eyes widening.

Ann Lackie

“There’s a parasite that lives in seagulls and in its early life it lives in snails.

“When they are young they are bright orange and when you cut open a snail there is a mass of these little orange things.”

Hmmmm. Not quite the conversation I’d expected, to be honest.

It had all started so well – a cup of coffee, a comfy sofa in a bright, high-ceilinged, book lined study in an imposing, Victorian villa set squarely in one of Cumbria’s quieter villages.

Ann knows all about parasites. She gained a doctorate in parasitology at Cambridge University in the early 1970s. It’s a niche area of zoology.

“I must have had an inspiring lecturer,” she smiles.

“But the idea of animals which are adapted to live inside other animals without killing them is very clever and they are fascinating the way they support themselves – and horrifying in what they can do.”

She denies that she is macabre or ghoulish, but then whizzes through a book of strange photographs of even stranger personal collections to one of her favourite pictures.

At first glance it looks like flowers, or a strange rock formation.

“They’re all mole skins, but they look like cacti don’t they?” she says with a mixture of fascination and joy.

As I focus in on the photo, I notice that the pink points at the top of the dark stems are the snouts of the animals and the four pink star-shapes (two on either side) are the paws.

You get the impression that she doesn’t always see life as square-on as some of us and her sense of humour can be slightly wider and slightly darker than many people’s.

The cover of her latest book, The Embalmer’s Book of Recipes features a photograph of an artificial eye collected by Peter The Great.

“It is made of bone and glass. I love the way you can see the empty room reflected in it.

“It isn’t macabre or gruesome.”

Due to be published in January this will be Ann Lingard’s fifth book (she writes under her maiden name) and involved travelling to Oxford, London, across Cumbria and to Holland for research on embalmers, tulip fields and foot an mouth disease.

Ann readily admits that gathering background material for her work is the most enjoyable part and is always amazed at how open and willing people are to talk to her.

Encouraging writers to approach scientists for background information and to use science in their books is what sparked her into establishing SciTalk three years ago.

There’s no doubt that the public are getting more interested in science – or at least, the forensic police side of it.

The books of Patricia Cornwell featuring forensic investigator Kay Scarpetta and Kathy Reichs (a real life forensic anthropologist) and her heroine Temperance Brennan (a forensic anthropologist) have sold millions of copies, despite, or because they are base on the morbid forensic science of dead bodies.

TV cop shows such as CSI and Bones and the BBC’s Silent Witness that grip our imaginations while bringing science to the fore for many people.

But Ann is hoping to spark a more general interest in the everyday science that surrounds us.

“Forensic courses are inundated with people because they think it is glamorous.

“But modern science has such a wide range of exciting views, topics and images, writers have an enormous gold mine of ideas there.

“Sometimes writers don’t want to approach scientists because they think they will embarrass themselves, but scientists are usually keen to explain what they do.

“SciTalk tries to give them the courage to use science.

“We now have 200 scientists on our database, each has their own web page, from every background. All free.”

For many of us, science involves white haired men in white coats in strange laboratories, it is all too complicated to understand, so we don’t even try.

It’s an image and an approach that annoys Ann: “It is infuriating and it is sad that we have come to this.

“I have done some work with schools, but I’m more concerned with older people who have left school, who have no interest in science and no way of discovering what it involves.

“People should be stimulated by what is around them– why is that rubbish swirling around in the corner of a building?”

She also helped start Cafe Scientifique in Cockermouth where anyone can discuss and explore the latest ideas in science and technology over a coffee or something stronger (it is held in the Jennings Brewery bar).

Breaking down the barriers of science prompted Ann to tour Cumbria during 2004-2005, giving nearly 60 talks to community groups including the WI, Young Farmers’ Clubs, Rotaries and U3As and schools on modern biomedicine and its social and ethical implications.

She includes a scintilla or so of science in all her books.

Inspiration for her novels comes from anywhere and everywhere.

The idea for The Embalmer’s Book of Recipes came in 2000, but because of the move to Cumbria and other reasons, this novel took longer than usual to write.

“You have to know what the plot is going to be at the start, but it morphs along the way,” she explains.

“Sometimes, I come to a point and realise that for the way I want to take a story, I have not done enough research or need to research something differently.

“When teaching creative writing, I stressed to students that nothing is written in stone, you can’t get too hooked on turning the perfect sentence.”

“My main aim is to inspire and excite readers in each book. There is a little science somewhere, but I try and do it subtly, just enough to titillate them and make them look for more.”

Ann and husband John, 60, a fellow scientist who is also a fine wood-turner, moved to Plumbland, near Aspatria, from Oxford eight years ago when he was appointed CEO at Westlakes Research Institute.

Before that, they spent 15 years as lecturers at Glasgow University, which is where Ann decided she would throw it all in and take up writing and broadcasting as a career.

“I wrote some short stories, some got short-listed for national competitions, I thought ‘I can’t be too bad’ and moved on from there.”

The couple (they have two grown-up daughters in Canada and Brighton) run a science consultancy, Plumbland Consulting.

They moved to Cumbria two weeks before foot and mouth hit the county to keep sheep on their one and a half acres of land to provide wool for Ann’s rugs and wall-hangings.

“I don’t like sitting about much,” she explains.

As she near 60, her next great aim is to write a radio play.

“My short radio play, Leave nothing but footsteps, was short-listed for a radio competition last year, so that gives me courage to start something longer.”

See www.annlingard.com