Even before she could read, Michelle was fascinated by a book her parents owned which contained beautiful pictures of life in the Stone Age. Then as a ten-year-old she became passionately keen on wolves. She longed to hunt with a bow and arrow, make her own shelters - and of course, to have her own wolf! Since they lived in London, her parents gave her a spaniel instead! Nevertheless, she managed to get rid of her bed and sleep on the floor; and she dug up her parents' lawn, and grew strange medicinal herbs. many years went by until the next opporunity arose for Michelle to get closer to her dream...

It was while I was at Oxford University that I wrote a story about a boy and a wolf cub. It wasn't very good, because I'd chosen a very complicated historical setting, so I put it away and forgot about it.

Fifteen years later, I had an encounter with a bear which once again brought those childhood passions to the surface. I was hiking alone in a remote part of southern California when suddenly, on the opposite side of the stream I was following, a female black bear and her two cubs appeared out of nowhere. The mother bear was extremely defensive, because of the cubs.

Ten Favourite Books About Archaeology And Anthropology

The Mind in the Cave by David Lewis-Williams A persuasive account of the origins and purpose of the great cave-paintings of western Europe. Drawing evidence from neurology, anthropology and archaeology, Lewis-Williams proposes that the ancient shamans entered caves in order to interact with the spirit world. The walls of the caves were perceived as a kind of membrane between that world and their own, and the cave paintings were a means of `fixing' images of the spirits. This is a compelling, beautifully written book, which reads like a thriller.

The Prehistory of the Mind: A Search for Origins of Art, Religion and Science by Steven Mithen The best book about the evolution of the human mind I've ever read. Its central theory is that human beings' great leap forward came when the mental barries between different kinds of intelligence - for example concerning the natural world, social interaction and the making of artefacts - broke down, allowing the brain to form hitherto unheard-of associations. This led to the development of religion, art, and, among other things, humour. Elegantly argued, it has stayed with me ever since I first read it.

Religion Explained by Pascal Boyer A fascinating, plausible theory for the origins of religion. The central argument is that the creation of religious concepts involved the use of mental systems which had already developed as a result of evolution. In other words, we're not moral because we're religious, but rather, we're religious because we're moral - morality having evolved for good Darwinian reasons. A stimulating read with many well-documented examples from a host of different cultures, particularly African ones.

Nunamiut Eskimos by Nicholas Gubser A readable, highly detailed account of the beliefs and way of life a traditional people. Particularly good on the classic means by which traditional hunters square the circle of having to kill their "brothers" (in this case, caribou) - by honouring the spirit of the prey and promising the guiding spirit to treat the carcass with respect. While at the same time eating it.

The Golden Bough by James George Frazer It may have been written over eighty years ago, but it's still a riveting theory of the origins of myth, magic and religion. Cogently argued in lucid, dispassionate prose, it's supported by a host of examples from all over the world. From the Ainu cult of the bear to Egyptian corn spirits; from the sacrificial god-kings of Ethiopia to the European worship of trees, it's all here, in over seven hundred pages of dense but fascinating prose. And that's just the abridged version.

Before Civilization by Colin Renfrew A marvellous reappraisal of European prehistory in light of changes in radiocarbon dating, this is clear, thought-provoking, and also casts a fascinating light on how scientific theories develop, are defended, and overthrown.

Sinews of Survival by Betty Kobayashi Issenman A hugely detailed examination of Inuit traditional skin clothing from prehistory to the present. No other book I know conveys so well the in-depth knowledge which traditional hunter-gatherers have about their environment, and the extent to which they learn from the animals they hunt.

After the Ice by Steven Mithen A global human history from 20,000-5,000 BC, this is evocative, erudite storytelling at its best, drawing on genetics, archaeology, anthropology and the writer's imagination to take the reader back in time. It's rare for an archaeologist to write like a novelist, but when he can, as Mithen can, it gives the lay reader a marvellous opportunity to go back in time, far surpassing the `dramatic reconstructions' which marr so many television documentaries.

Gods and Myths of Northern Europe by H R Ellis Davidson My favourite account of Norse mythology. This pulls together history, folklore, literature and anthropology in its discussion of each deity of the Norse pantheon: where they came from, how they developed, and where they ended up once Christianity had taken hold. The section on Odin as a shaman is particularly fascinating.

Return to Chauvet Cave by Jean Clottes A big, beautifully illustrated book which does ample justice to the Chauvet cave, and includes a detailed account of the artistic techniques used in the making of these 35,000 year-old paintings and engravings, their themes, and possible significance. The photography is outstanding.

An old rancher had advised me to sing to bears to reassure them, so for some reason I launched into the Irish Danny Boy. Unfortunately, the bear didn't turn around and go away. She came towards me to check me out! She stopped about ten feet away, looking very edgy, and rocking from side to side, as if about to rear up on her hind legs. I was terrified. I knew that I had no defences against her; that somehow I must persuade her that I wasn't a threat, or prey. In total silence (I'd stopped singing by this time!), and very slowly, I sidestepped past her. She watched me all the way. After what seemed like an eternity, the path dipped - and when I was out of sight, I ran like crazy.

That encounter made a huge impression on me. It was terrifying, but also exhilarating, and it felt weirdly like being back in time. But after a while, I forgot about it. Or I thought I had.

Then, several years later, I was looking through a pile of old notes when I came upon that old story I'd written about the boy and the wolf. I really, really wanted to write it; but the historical setting was wrong. Then the memory of the bear came back to me - and I knew what to do. This wasn't a story about history. It was about prehistory. As soon as I realized that, all the old childhood passions came surging back. Wolves. The Stone Age. The natural world. I had the plot for WOLF BROTHER. Very soon after that, I realized that in fact there wasn't just one story, but six. CHRONICLES OF ANCIENT DARKNESS was born.

The next step was to do my research properly. In addition to location and wolf research, I also did lots of library research. What weapons did Torak's people use? What shelters did they build? For that I've studied archaeology. And to fill in the gaps, I've taken clues from the ways of life of more recent traditional people, including the Inuit and Native American peoples, the San of Africa, the Ainu of Japan, the Sami of Lapland, and certain central and south American tribes.

Again, it's the details that bring it alive. When Torak tracks his first kill, I've adapted how the San track their prey: identifying with it so closely that they become the animal. To show how Torak perceives his world, I've used the rather eerie Sami idea that everything - including rocks, rivers and trees - is alive and has a spirit; not all of them can talk, but all can hear and think...

I've been fascinated, too, to find how in different cultures, similarities emerge. For example, because many hunter-gatherers are nomadic, they travel light, and don't value possessions as we do. Instead they value the qualities you need to be a good hunter: patience, resilience, and the ability to listen. And they treat their prey with respect, honouring its spirit when they've brought it down, and taking great care to make use of every part of the carcass, so that the spirits will send more prey.

The more I studied, the more I realized that the term `hunter-gatherer' can be misleading, evoking (at least for me) a picture of someone casually spotting a clump of berries and saying, `Oh, good, I think I'll gather some of those'. In fact, hunter-gatherers had to be experts about their world. They had to know precisely when particular plants bore fruit or nuts; when the bark of different trees was at its best for making rope, and where such trees could be found, and so on. The more I learned, the more I understood how unbelievably skilled these people were. It's as far from The Flintstones as you could possibly imagine!

But the world of the clans is about more than tracking prey and scraping hides. How did they think? What did they believe about life and death? Again, I've learnt from more modern hunter-gatherers. I've found that many similarities among them:-

• Because hunter-gatherers travel often, they don't tend to value possessions as much as we do (you wouldn't, would you, if you had to carry them around?).
• They often don't have a concept of owning land.
• They value the qualities you need for hunting: patience, resilience, and the ability to listen (hence the idea of Torak being "the Listener").
• Often they treat their spear or bow as a valued `hunting partner', not just as an object (hence Renn and her bow).
• They treat their prey with respect, honouring its spirit, and taking care to use of every part of it.

It'll be be clear by now that I've tried very hard to make Torak's world accurate; and recently I had confirmation that I might have succeeded, when I was asked to open a special Wolf Brother display case at the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The Museum has taken excerpts from the book, and exhibited them along with real archaeological artefacts mentioned in the story, such as flint flakes, red ochre, etc. I was delighted that the book has been so honoured!

In creating Torak's world I've been pretty eclectic, borrowing a belief or a custom here, and then tweaking it to make it my own. I've used the same method to get inside the mind of the wolf cub, who in Wolf Brother is very much a character in his own right. Thus I've built on what I've learnt from years of reading about wolf behaviour, and then imagined myself into a wolf's hide. I want the reader to experience the Forest through his eyes - and also, crucially, through his ears and nose. He's cute because he's a cub, but he's also an authentic wolf, and therefore, even to Torak, ultimately unknowable. Children seem particularly to like this aspect of the story, perhaps because it makes them see their own pets with new eyes.

So this is the challenge I'm facing with Wolf Brother and the other five books of the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness. To watch Torak grow as he battles evil and discovers his world: from the Sea to the Far North, from the Deep Forest to the High Mountains. To meet strange new clans: the Seals, the White Foxes, the Aurochs. To learn new skills such as bow-making, flint-knapping and reindeer hunting. And above all, to take us back to the world of the hunter-gatherers: the brave, resourceful, unbelievably skilled people who came before us.