ABSTRACT
The traditional role of biographer as ‘silent witness’ has been replaced by a spectrum of subjective authorial points of view which include that of omniscient narrator and authorial fictional character. This essay argues that the lesser discussed perspective of ‘interpreter’ is more effective in scientific and conservation biographies which aim to elicit environmental engagement from the reader. It uses the interdisciplinary scholarship of environmental interpretation, which ‘involves translating the technical language of a natural science or related field into terms and ideas that people who aren’t scientists can readily understand’ [Ham. 1992. Environmental Interpretation: A Practical Guide for People with big Ideas and Small Budgets. Golden, CO: North American Press, 3] and examples from my own research into the life of Malaysian ecologist Dr Wong Siew Te to explore this perspective.
