Animals & Men 49

Jonathan Downes (born 1959) is a naturalist, cryptozoologist, author, editor, film-maker, poet, novelist, activist, journalist, composer and singer-songwriter, with a background in radical politics and mental health care. He is Director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology. His father, the explorer and Colonial Service Officer J. T. Downes (1925-2006), wrote several books on a wide range of subjects, such as African history, theology and the Devonshire dialect. His mother Mary Downes (née Rawlins) (1922-2002) was a broadcaster and author who published several collections of Nigerian folklore under the pen-name `Yar Kunama`. As a child he lived in Nigeria, and then Hong Kong (then a British Crown Colony), and returned to the UK in 1971, when his father was 'invalided out' of the Hong Kong government. Having suffered from manic-depression for years, Downes is an activist for mental health issues. Between 1985 and their divorce in 1996 he was married to Alison Huntingford. On 21 July 2007 he married his second wife Corinna Newton Downes who died of cancer on 16 August 2020. He has two stepdaughters and a granddaughter.