Dr Helen Scales is a marine biologist, journalist and bestselling author. Her work immerses people of all ages in the wonders of the living world, especially in the ocean. Helen’s books have been adapted for stage and screen, and translated into 15 languages.

Helen writes about the underwater world for the Guardian and National Geographic Magazine among others. She teaches science writing and marine biology at Cambridge University and is a storytelling ambassador for the Save Our Seas Foundation. Helen lives in Cambridge, England and the wild Atlantic coast of France.

Her first book for young readers, The Great Barrier Reef, was published in 2019 by Flying Eye Books, followed by the global bestseller What a Shell Can Tell (2022) published by Phaidon, and a board book version, Shells... and What they Hide Inside (2024). In 2023 she launched a series with Flying Eye Books called Scientists in the Wild, so far featuring the Galápagos Islands (2023) and Antarctica (2024) co-written with her sister Kate Hendry. Return of the Wild (2023) was published by Laurence King. Oceanopedia will be published by Laurence King in 2025.