Ian Francis grew up near Loweswater, in the northwest Lake District. Having gained his degree and PhD in geology from Oxford University, he worked as a Higher Scientific Office with the Geological Conservation Review Unit in Newbury, then as a well-site geologist in the Australian outback, before returning to the UK to lead earth science book publishing at Blackwell (later Wiley-Blackwell).

Ian is co-author of The Lake District: Landscape and Geology, recently published by Crowood Press, and writes a regular column on landscape and geology for Cumbria Magazine.

Ian is a keen fell walker, musician and photographer, and a member of the Cumbria GeoConservation Group, a volunteer organisation working to record and preserve important geological sites in the county.

He lives in Maryport, on the Cumbrian coast.