Robert Cameron developed his interest in snails as a student, lured away from birds by his supervisor, Arthur Cain. Starting in Portsmouth, his career has been mainly in Adult Education at Birmingham and Sheffield Universities. His PhD involved the well-known shell polymorphism in Cepaea snails, and that has remained a core interest, leading to participation in the Evolution MegaLab set up to commemorate Darwin Year in 2009. The biogeography and ecology of land snails have remained a focus throughout his career and beyond, taking him to Australia, Canada, Greece, Madeira, the Azores and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. He was the co-author (with Michael Kerney) of the Field Guide to the Land Snails of Britain and North-West Europe (1979) and has produced keys to the British species. He is the author or co-author of more than 140 papers on snails.