My friend and colleague Fran Weaver, who has died aged 57 of cancer, in Finland, his adopted homeland for the last three decades, was an expat of a very modern kind. Having started work in Helsinki in 1983 as an EFL teacher, after some years Fran followed his wife, Aila, a chemist, with their young children to Brazil, where he took on the role of house-husband in São Paulo for two years.

In addition to domestic duties and trips around the country, Fran took correspondence courses in journalism. On returning to Helsinki in the late 1990s, he started to pick up work translating and writing for local English language publications, mainly on ecological issues.

He had quickly acquired a functional knowledge of Finnish, a notoriously difficult language, and his proficiency and social skills opened doors. He was soon interviewing people from boat-builders to government ministers, lighthouse-keepers to park wardens.

His social circles were equally varied and included the Irish pub band Boolabus, with whom he played banjo and mandolin, members of the Finnish rugby team, a Saturday morning scratch football group, local ornithologists and colleagues from the Federation of Finnish Travel Writers.

Fran had first moved to Finland on a temporary basis after completing a degree in social studies at Reading University. His formative years, though, had been spent in the Manchester area, where his father, Terence, was a secondary school teacher, and his mother, Stella (nee Brassil), taught in a primary school. Fran attended St Bede’s college in the south of the city. A happy childhood with his sister, Mary, and brother, Nick, set Fran up with a commitment to seeing the positive in people that lasted throughout his life.

In addition to his pursuit of all matters humanitarian and environmental, from bird-watching to walking, cycling and in later years volcanology, Fran had followed the nascent music scene of late 70s Manchester, attending gigs ranging from the Buzzcocks to Steve Hillage.

Music was a major interest throughout his school years and he developed a taste also for acoustic music, which later grew to incorporate groups such as the Bothy Band as well as Finnish music from Eppu Normaali to Värttinä.

He is survived by Aila (nee Ukkonen), whom he married in 1990, their daughters, Sally and Linda, and his siblings.