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 on The Gardens and Gardeners of Later Stuart London which I was awarded in 2005.
I am a trustee of The Gardens Trust, the national campaigning body for the protection and support of our historic parks, gardens and designed landscapes. I co-chair their education and events committee and write a weekly blog for them which you can find at: thegardenstrust.blog
I’m one of the convenors of the History of Gardens and Landscapes seminar at the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London. For our current programme see … http://www.history.ac.uk/events/seminars/121
From 2012 to 2016 I was also a trustee of Parks & Gardens UK which is the main on-line source of information about historic parks and gardens in the country. For more info take a look at … www.parksandgardens.org
Until cuts began killing off adult education I taught at Birkbeck in the Faculty of Continuing Education, on the history of London, and archival research. I now work with a small group of colleagues organizing and teaching courses about garden history at City Lit in central London and independently at the Institute of Historical Research. In 2018 we began working in BIrmingham too, and are currently looking to expand to other areas of the country. Contact me for more details.
