Alan Green grew up on the north coast of Cornwall and now lives in south London. As an environmental science graduate, he remains passionate about protecting and preserving the natural world. Alan spent nearly three decades at a Magic Circle law firm in the City of London, where he led a copy-editing team. A committed daily runner for over 35 years, Alan combines his love of nature with a commitment to wellbeing in all aspects of life. Sound Advice is his debut book.
1. Our Sun is only 20 galactic years old The bandMidnight Oil once asked, “How can we dance when our earth is turning?” The literal answer takes us from the Earth spinning at jet speed, to the Sun circling the Milky Way, to our galaxy itself hurtling through an expanding cosmos. Remarkably, the Sun has orbited our galaxy just 20 times in its lifetime — a reminder that we are all “star sailors”, in constant motion, even when sitting still.
2. Ivan Wise has blue eyes. I have blue eyes. We may be related… We both have blue eyes — and they may trace back to a single ancestor, 6,000–10,000 years ago. Unlike brown eyes, blue eyes aren’t due to pigment but to the scattering of light, as with a blue sky. Blue eyes are a genetic mutation, but one that persists in humans and pop music.
3. You may not be as old as you feel. Our bodies are in perpetual renewal. Some cells live days, others last a lifetime. On average, our cells are only 7–10 years old — meaning we are all, in a sense, younger than our birthday-cake candles may suggest.
4. Yews, and why you often find them in churchyards. Step into a churchyard and you may find a yew that’s older than the church itself. These trees have stood as markers of sacred ground since before Christianity. They can live for thousands of years. Both healing and poisonous, the yew is both the “Tree of Life and the Tree of the Dead” — a symbol of endurance, regeneration and mortality.
5. Our world without fungi wouldn’t function. From decomposing matter to building vast underground “wood-wide webs”, fungi are indispensable recyclers and collaborators. They’ve given us antibiotics, bread, cheese, beer and even substitute materials for a sustainable future. Fungi are not just important; they’re essential. Without them, ecosystems — and our own lives — would collapse.
6. Morgans don’t have wooden chassis. There’s a persistent myth that Morgan sports cars have wooden chassis. Not true: their chassis are steel or aluminium. What they do have is a hand-crafted ash frame, giving them strength, lightness and character. My own Morgan, now over 25 years old, feels less like a car and more like an old friend.
Better Known 