Born in Pencoed Avenue, Cefn Fforest, Patricia Wiltshire, relives stories of her valleys’ childhood and tales of incredible detection work that would make Sherlock Holmes look like Inspector Clouseau.
Patricia may not be a household name, but she is known the world over as one of the leading Palynologists on the planet. She has featured on TV documentaries, radio shows and podcasts. And books, obviously.

Palynology is the study of pollen grains, plant spores, and fungal spores as well as microscopic fragments of any macroorganism. Pollen and spores have walls that are composed of acid-resistant organic material and occur in sediments, sedimentary rocks, and even some metasedimentary rocks. If you have a good microscope and a knowledge of soils, botany, and palynology, you can link people, objects, and places, estimate time of death, and demonstrate (among other things) that murders are premediated. Patricia has, on more than one occasion demonstrated the innocence of suspects as well as guilt.
In fairness to Patricia, she has been an intellectual sponge since childhood and has absorbed far more than just palynology. She has devoured archaeology, botany, biology, and huge range of other disciplines that most mortals do not even know exist. As a result, she can take samples of soil and debris off the shoes of a suspect and pin down not just the field they have been walking in, but which part of the field. Her meticulous attention to detail when cataloguing microscopic palynomorphs is mind boggling.
The book contains a number of anonymous case studies where she details how she analysed combinations of pollen, spores, and fungi that create a unique profile where a suspect or victim has contacted.
We find the victim of a self-confessed murderer that could not remember where he buried the body; establish whether a body found in a woods was murdered in the woods or murdered elsewhere and brought there to be buried; and through a postmortem examination establish whether someone had died through participating in an Ayahuasca ceremony, or because he had ‘pre-loaded’ on magic mushrooms in advance.

Word of Patricia’s powers of detection have not been kept secret on these shores, she is known to police forces and forensic botanists around the world. We get tales of a visit to a body farm in the USA, where bodies are donated to science and left in different environments to monitor how they decompose; and a trip to Albania to gather evidence of a gang land murder. All of the cases are anonymous, although some of them are easy to work out from the details. She has been involved in many extremely high-profile cases, although some of the highest profile cases are held back for her second book, due out in March.
Although much of her career has revolved around solving crimes, she is first and foremost an academic and a scientist. She has studied extensively, lectured in many university courses and set up a Masters Degree in Forensic Archaeological Science at University College London. She has been driven by an inquisitive disposition from childhood, when ill health kept her indoors. Whilst others were out playing, she was indoors with her nose inside an encyclopedia. When she did make it outdoors, she was fascinated by the flora, fauna and wildlife around her. We pick up some of her knowledge in the book, and interesting titbits like the electrostatic charge of a bee, and details of which pollen grains spread through the air, and which are transported by insects. We learn about nasal passages retaining pollen and techniques she has developed for getting evidence from cadavers.
Through all of this she has overcome any squeamishness and is objective about all things, and people, she has to examine. But she is still a human being, and the book recalls her childhood in Cefn Fforest, going to Lewis’ Girls School, Hengoed, relationships with her family and some of the characters in the village. We get to learn of many the experiences that have combined to make her who she is.
Despite her objectivity with dealing with dead bodies and the fact that she states she has ‘no time for poetry’, the book is eloquent and articulate, she paints pictures of theses selected memories that transport the reader to by her side. You can almost smell the honeysuckle (or the formaldehyde) .
She moved to Surrey when leaving school and has spent most of her life there – she is even chairman of the local council these days. However, you can take the girl out of Cefn Fforest, but you cannot take the Cefn Fforest out of the girl. She still has an active interest in the village and is a Trustee of our Stute charity. She visits as often as she can, and we are planning on arranging a talk in the coming months for anyone interested to hear tales from this Cefn Fforest girl done good.
Patricia’s next book, The Natural History of Crime, is due out on the 14th March 2024
