Anna Grayson
Anna Grayson is a British geologist, writer, broadcaster, and artist. She is known for bringing earth sciences to popular attention in the UK through numerous books and BBC radio and television series in the 1990s and early 2000s, particularly through the programmes Rock Solid, Postcards from the Past and The Essential Guide to Rocks. In 1996, Grayson made headlines around the world with the discovery of a blue mineral which at the time was believed to be hitherto unknown to science. After further research, the rock was confirmed to be an unusually large sample of the rare blue mineral, aerinite.
Since completing an access course at Exeter College of Art in 2012, Grayson has pursued a second career as an artist, focusing on photographic pastiches of famous works of art. Five of her works have been exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London, and she has been featured on Grayson Perry's Art Club on Channel 4 television.
Early life and education
Grayson is the daughter of Harry Grayson, a British scientist who helped to develop in-aircraft radar during the Second World War. She was educated at Walthamstow High School for Girls, and went on to read geology at the University of St. Andrews, graduating in 1974. She married Dr Desmond Clark in 1976.Media career
Following university, Grayson trained as a radio studio manager with the BBC. She went on to become a producer and presenter, featuring in segments on many popular series on BBC Radio 4 and Radio 5, including Science Now, Woman's Hour, The Food Programme, and You and Yours.From the late 1980s to the early 2000s, Grayson fronted many factual radio and television series covering a variety of subjects. Her work primarily focused on popular science and she is best known for programmes which brought earth sciences into public imagination in the UK. A review of the book and TV programme Postcards from the Past in the journal Geology Today credited Grayson's persistence as a geologist and presenter for the "very welcome breakthrough for our science to have a programme devoted to geology". In 1997, she launched the inaugural Scottish Geology Week. She was a patron of and adviser to the Dynamic Earth exhibition in Edinburgh for five years, before resigning in 1999 over concerns about the costs.
Books
Rock Solid, The Natural History Museum, 1992Postcards from the Past, BBC Education, 1996Equinox: The Earth, Pan Macmillan, 2000Equinox Book of Science, Pan Macmillan, 2001 Level Up Maths, Heinemann, 2008Contributions to public understanding of Earth Science
Blue mineral
In March 1996, Grayson made headlines around the world with the discovery of a blue mineral that could not be identified by scientists. She had purchased the rock at a roadside stall in Morocco in the early 1980s, where the seller had identified it as lapis lazuli, a relatively common blue mineral. During National Science Week, Grayson had taken the rock to an event run by the Natural History Museum in London, where museum staff were offering to help identify mysterious objects brought in by the public. After further research, the mineral was identified as aerinite, a rare bright blue mineral originating in Spain and Morocco.Awards
In 1998, Grayson was awarded the R.H. Worth prize by the Geological Society of London, for encouragement of amateur interest in geology through the broadcast media.In 1999, she won the Glaxo Wellcome ABSW Science Writers' Award for best science television, for her work on The Essential Guide to Rocks.