After a career in teaching and ending up as a head teacher in inner London, I took early [OK very early] retirement and decided to go back into education full time on my own account. I did a four year diploma course in Garden History and that led on to an MA in Historical Research at Birkbeck College, University of London in 1999. I enjoyed academia so much I went straight on to do a PhD at Birkbeck on The Gardens and Gardeners of Later Stuart London which I was awarded in 2005.
I am now Course Director for an MA in Garden History and an honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham and am also able to supervise PhD students! Click here for details
I was until very recently a trustee of the Gardens Trust, the national campaigning body for the protection and support of our historic parks, gardens and designed landscapes. I still write a weekly blog for them on any aspect of garden history that takes my fancy. I’ve been writing it since 2013 and it’s designed to both inform and amuse, as well sometimes encouraging you to do a bit more research yourself. It comes out every Saturday morning in time for breakfast and you you can find it at thegardenstrust.blog
From 2011-2022 I was one of the convenors of the History of Gardens and Landscapes seminar at the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London. For their current programme see … http://www.history.ac.uk/events/seminars/121
And just in case you think it’s all rather theoretical I also try and run a 5 acre garden in western France, which my partner and I open to the public.
GARDEN HISTORY TALKS 