You may have seen pictures in the newspapers over the weekend of fossil-hunters on the beaches of the Dorset coast, hoping to find treasures washed down from the cliffs during the recent storms. The coastline has attracted fossil enthusiasts for a long time, but the best known of them all is Mary Anning.
She was born in Lyme Regis in 1799 and was celebrated by scientists and geologist who acknowledged her as the greatest fossil collector of her day.
Britain's former permanent representative to the United Nations, Sir Crispin Tickell, is her great, great, great, great nephew. He describes to reporter Kathleen Griffin the 19th century life of Mary Anning.
