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I am a freelance garden historian, and can offer your group a wide variety of talks connected with this most fascinating of subjects. I can also offer my services as a tour guide of many historic gardens across the UK and Europe, assist you with a research project or help you design your garden in a particular period style. 

I have been giving talks since 2000, and am currently taking bookings for 2023 and into 2024.  Please see the Diary Page for details of my availability. 

I was awarded the University of London (Birkbeck College) Diploma in Garden History in 2003.  

I have given talks for:

The Eden Project
National Portrait Gallery
Imperial War Museum
The Royal Pavilion, Brighton
Painshill Landscape Garden Trust
Blenheim Palace
Waddesdon Manor
Dulwich Picture Gallery
The National Trust (at many individual properties and for 40+ branches of the Members’ Association, as far apart as Durham and Falmouth)
Ness Botanic Garden, Chester
Northampton Museum
Chelsea Physic Garden
the Universities of Essex, Reading and Kent
the University of the Third Age (60+ individual local branches)
many local gardening, history and natural history societies and the Women’s Institute.

All my talks are illustrated with high-quality Powerpoint presentations and most (but not all) can be adapted to suit your needs as regards timing – from 45 minutes to 1½ hours or longer. Most can be arranged to incorporate a refreshment break if necessary. “The Tale of the Tulip” and “Say it with Poison” cannot incorporate a break. 

“Flower Power” talks are 25 minutes long and can be combined to make a longer talk to suit the time available. The Tale of the Tulip” and “Say it with Poison” are 45-50 minutes long. “An A-Z of Garden History” and “The Inexhaustible Mr. Paxton” require 75 minutes or more

A full list of the lectures I can currently offer can be found by clicking on the appropriate link at the top of this page

SIGN OF THE TIMES
I am fully vaccinated against Covid-19