12 April 2006

A former news reporter from Cambridgeshire has been recruited by the RSPB to help spread the news about the Society’s nature reserves.

John Clare, from St Ives, will use his new role as a media officer, based at the RSPB’s headquarters in Sandy, Bedfordshire, to publicise the huge amount of work going on at RSPB reserves to help birds and people.

Before joining the RSPB, John spent 12 years working as a journalist, including four years with the Cambridge Evening News and two years at a Cambridgeshire-based news agency.

John, 33, said: “I am thrilled to get the chance to work with the RSPB.

“As a new arrival I am staggered by the number, size and variety of the Society’s nature reserves and the fantastic amount of wildlife they help to protect. I think other people would be too and it is my job to make sure they get to hear about it.

“The number of reserves is growing all the time and so are the benefits they bring to our wildlife and to the surrounding communities.”

As far as he is aware, John is no relation to the 19th century Northamptonshire poet also called John Clare. That Clare was first feted and then dumped by a fickle public and ended his days penniless and in a lunatic asylum. He lives on through his world-famous poems and in the names of several civic buildings in Peterborough, including a theatre and a car park.

Outside of work, John spends his time shouting at the front of a Cambridge punk band called Bomb Factory. “It’s in a desperate bid for fame and glory that will never come,” he says. He hopes having a steady job with the RSPB will prevent him ending his days, like his poet namesake, penniless and in a lunatic asylum.

Ends

Further information
For more information contact John Clare, RSPB media officer on 01767 680551
News release sent by Chris Durdin, RSPB Eastern England office, 01603 660066

Note for editors
RSPB nature reserves in Cambridgeshire are at the Ouse Washes, Nene Washes and Fowlmere. The RSPB also has an arable farm at Knapwell and, in partnership with Hanson, is creating Britain’s biggest reedbed at the Hanson-RSPB Wetland Project at Needingworth Quarry.