Lucy Cooke is an author, National Geographic explorer and award-winning broadcaster, with a Masters in zoology from New College Oxford, where she studied under Richard Dawkins. Lucy is the author of 4 books, the recent best-seller and feminist paradigm shaker, Bitch: What does it mean to be female?, New York Times best-seller A Little Book of Sloth and its follow up Life in the Sloth Lane: Slow Down and Smell the Hibiscus, and The Truth About Animals a Royal Society prize winner. She is also a columnist for BBC Wildlife Magazine, writing her popular Female of the Species column since 2021.
Using her vast knowledge and experience as a zoologist and naturalist, Lucy’s work focusses on what we can learn and understand from the unique biology and behaviour of animals and the animal kingdom, including lessons surrounding: female and male behavioural patterns, leadership and dominance, pack mentalities and sustainability.
A sought-after public speaker who is comfortable performing to a wide range of audiences from Harvard to Birmingham ICC to Glastonbury Music festival. She has also worked with a range of corporate clients including J. P Morgan, Gartner, Deloitte and Disney. Lucy was also invited to speak about sloths and sustainability at TED Women in 2018, and has spoken at numerous festivals including Hay-on-Wye, Cheltenham Science and book festivals, Bath book festival, Edinburgh Science Festival, New Scientist Live, The Electric Picnic in Ireland, the G10 in Amsterdam and Heidelberg science festival..
As a broadcaster, Lucy has written, produced and presented high profile prime time documentaries for BBC, Channel 4, National Geographic, PBS, Animal Planet and Discovery, as well as live programmes Springwatch and The Beach Live for BBC. A regular panellist on radio shows such as Sue Perkins Nature Table, Infinite Monkey Cage, Women’s Hour and The Museum of Curiosity. Lucy’s Power of… series has been released as an audiobook entitled The Evolutionary Edge on Audible.
Lucy’s paradigm-busting research has earned her a fellowship at Durham University. Bitch has also been placed on the syllabus of countless international universities, many of whom have invited Lucy to lecture including Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Mount Holyoke, Chicago, Stockholm, Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, Newcastle and Durham.