Freelance writer, editor, presenter: recognised authority on British country houses and architecture, and a skilled but accessible communicator in these fields on tv, radio and as print journalist, author and lecturer.
In the past few years I have co-written and presented fourteen programmes of the Curious House Guest series for BBC2, celebrating country houses today, this took me all over the British Isles and to Italy and Jamacia – sheer heaven, and challenging too.
I was Architectural Editor for Country Life magazine for nearly ten years, specialising in features on the English country house, writing on houses of different scales and periods, from Chatsworth to Garsington Manor, as well as on all aspects of architecture and the arts.
My most recent books are The Country Houses of Sir John Vanbrugh (Aurum) How To Read A Country House (Ebury), English Manor House (Aurum) and Up and Down Stairs: the History of the Country House Servant.
Download a pdf of my Biography/CV
TV
- BBC2 series The Curious House Guest (14 programmes) 2005 & 2006
- Feature on Chatsworth in Britain’s Best (History uktv) April 2007
Editorial and consultancy
- 1998-2007 Architectural Editor, Country Life
- 1995-1998 Architectural Writer, Country Life
- 1993-1995 National Trust, curator, (Assistant Historic Buildings Representative – East Anglia
- 1990-1993 Architectural Adviser, Victorian Society
Publications
- How to Read A Country House (Ebury 2006)
- Plasterwork (Aurum 2000)
- The English Manor House (Aurum 1999, paperback 2007)
- The Country Houses of Sir John Vanbrugh (Aurum 2008)
- (forthcoming) Up and Down stairs: a history of the country house servant (John Murray, 2009)
Journalism, lecturing and curating
Articles in Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, World of Interiors, Heritage Today, British Art Journal, The Field, Horse and Hound; Freelance radio presenter of Radio 3 series ‘Brick and Baroque’ 1994/95; Guest editor of Farrow and Ball’s magazine Archive 2006 and 2008.
Given lectures to Cambridge University Department of History of Art, Attingham Summer School, Madingley Hall, Tate Britain, Victoria and Albert Museum, Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, Art Fund, HHA and National Trust; Hon Tutor to the SPAB Plunket Scholars
Guest curator: In pursuit of Antiquity: drawings from the Giants of British neo-Classicism at Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, 1/2-1/6,2008; co-curator The Country Houses of Robert Adam, from the Country Life picture library, held at The Georgian Group Fitzroy Square, November 2007.
Public committees
- 2009 – member of the Fabric Advisory Committee, Ely Cathedral
- 2008 – Friends of Kettles Yard committee
- 2007 – Buildings Book Trust (which funds ‘Pevsners/Buildings of England Series’)
- 2005 – Churches Conservation Trust, Peer Review Panel
- 1996-2002 Council for the Care of Churches, Main committee
- 1996-2002 CCC, Sculpture and Furnishings Subcommittee
- 1992-2002 Victorian Society Buildings Subcommittee
Memberships
- Society of Architectural Historians of GB
- Brother of the Art Workers Guild, elected 2007