Neil Mercer grew up in the Lake District, where he went to Cockermouth Grammar School and then studied psychology at the universities of Manchester and Leicester. He was Professor of Language and Communications at the Open University and is now Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge, where he is also Vice-President of the college Hughes Hall. He is particularly interested in the ways people use talk not just to interact, but to 'interthink' (think collectively). His research with Rupert Wegerif and Lyn Dawes generated the Thinking Together approach to classroom teaching, and he has worked extensively with teachers, researchers and educational policy makers in several parts of the world on improving talk for learning in schools.