C.W. Nicol, born in Wales and educated in England, first visited the Arctic in 1958 to research eider ducks for McGill University. By 1965 he was spending seven months a year in the North as a marine mammal technician for the Arctic Biological Station, and studying karate in Japan (he holds a black belt, fifth dan rank). Nicol was the first game warden at the Simian Mountain National Park in Ethiopia; an Environmental Emergency Officer at the Environmental Protection Service in Vancouver; and a member of the Minister of Environment's committee on environment and culture in Japan. He travels regularly throughout Japan and abroad, giving lectures on environmental and cultural topics. Nicol has also conceived, written and acted in numerous TV documentaries, filmed in Zaire, Mongolia, the Canadian Arctic, New Zealand, Wales, Scotland, England, Australia and Japan. He has served as a committee member for the Kaiko Takeshi Literary Prize, and in 1980 he won the Japan Broadcasting Writer's Award for a television drama written in Japanese. He is the author of many articles, essays, translations, novels and books for young people, including Harpoon and The White Shaman. Nicol lives in Japan with his wife and two daughters.