Carolyn Allen is a writer investigating the stories that guide our decisions around health and wellbeing. Her investigations of the stories we tell ourselves about food has led her to some of the most curious cold-cases in history, cases that take her from the Epic of Gilgamesh to Asterix and Obelix; court cases to cook books; and fine art to cult TV.
Her career has never strayed far from the field of public health and wellbeing. She has a PhD in Medical and Clinical Science from the Australian National University but left laboratories for libraries (and Australia for England) after winning a Wellcome Trust - Association of British Science Writers award for a Masters in Science, Culture and Communication at the University of Bath.
She has since told the stories of award-winning scholars from across the disciplinary spectrum: from the international team of Egyptologists, botanists, palaeobotanists, pathologists and chemists who found the pharmacy of the Pharaohs to be more medicine than magic; to the scholar whose innovative approach to literary criticism showed that Alice in Wonderland can tell us much more about the Victorian world that shaped it, if you read between the lines.
She lives in Somerset with her partner. And when she isn’t shouting at herself for falling down research rabbit holes - or writing extraordinarily slowly - she might well be planting, talking to or harvesting garlic, because she read once that it was an act of resistance against our profit-driven food system (which does make sense given it can sort out vampires and all). Also, she really likes garlic.