Expert lecturers

Specialist in architectural history from the Baroque to the 20th century with a wide knowledge of the performing arts. He graduated in Psychology and Art History from Carleton College, Minnesota and studied at the Louvre School of Art History in Paris. Since 1987 he has lived in Berlin and has organised and led many academic tours in Germany.

Charles Allen is a British writer and historian. He was born in India, where several generations of his family served under the British Raj. His work focuses on India and South Asia in general. Among his many books are Plain Tales from the Raj: Images of British India in the Twentieth Century (1975), Lives of the Indian Princes (1984), The Search for Shangri-La: a Journey into Tibetan History (1999), Soldier Sahibs: the Men who Made the North-West Frontier (2000), The Buddha and the Sahibs: the Men who Discovered India’s Lost Religion (2002), God’s Terrorists: the Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad (2006), Kipling Sahib: India and the Making of Rudyard Kipling (2007) and Ashoka: The Search for India’s Lost Emperor (February 2012).

Lecturer, writer, curator and broadcaster specialising in the art, architecture and design of the 19th and 20th centuries. Has published many books on pottery, porcelain, silver and antiques, also on canals and railways, and two books on the Thames. Apart from childhood boating, his introduction to the river came with the writing of Nicholson’s Guide to the Thames, the research for which included exploring the river from source to sea. He is a long standing expert on BBC’s Antiques Roadshow.

Archaeologist and Britain’s foremost specialist in prehistoric art. He obtained his PhD at Cambridge and is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a corresponding member of the Archaeological Institute of America. He led the team which discovered Britain’s only known Ice Age cave art at Creswell in 2003 and his books include Prehistoric Rock Art and Journey Through the Ice Age.

Art historian and lecturer in the History of Art, specialising in the Medieval and Renaissance periods. She is a lecturer at SOAS, The Open University and the University of Kent, and the continuing education department for the University of Oxford.  She was hitherto head of History of Art for the British Institute of Florence. She obtained her MA in Renaissance Studies from Birkbeck College and is currently researching for a PhD on the Mediaeval Wayfarer.

Senior lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge. She gained her doctorate in Moroccan history from SOAS. Her publications include The Great Caliphs and Jihad and its Interpretations in Precolonial Morocco, as well as numerous articles on the culture, society and politics of Islamic Spain and Morocco.

Expert on British architectural history and historic interiors and an interior designer and artist. She studied at Toronto and Leeds Universities and Edinburgh College of Art and has taught at the University of Leeds, Christ Church Oxford, York and Nottingham. She lectures for The Art Fund, The National Trust and NADFAS.

Historian and lecturer, specialising in the history of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire and mediaeval architecture. He worked for thirty years at Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum and has served on many society councils in the West Country. He obtained his PhD from Reading University and is a Fellow of the Museums Association and the Society of Antiquaries.

Emeritus Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge, Fellow of Sidney Sussex College and Fellow of the British Academy. Among his many books are a study of Emperor Joseph II, the award-winning The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture, the best-selling The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815, and the much-translated The Triumph of Music in the Modern World. His most recent book is The Romantic Revolution.

Lecturer, writer and curator specialising in 20th-century art. She studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before graduating in English Literature and History of Art from UCL, and with an MA in Art History from the Courtauld. She has lectured for the National Gallery, Tate, Royal Academy, Courtauld, Sotheby’s and Birkbeck College.

Art historian specialising in Spanish art and sculpture and Chief Curator of Dulwich Picture Gallery. Former posts include Assistant Curator of 17th and 18th-century European paintings at the National Gallery, London, where he curated numerous exhibitions: El Greco, Caravaggio: the final years, Velázquez and The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture 1600–1700. He completed his PhD at Trinity College, Dublin.

Former Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments in Scotland, President of the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries and holder of three honorary Professorships. David Breeze is the author of the English Heritage guide-book to Hadrian’s Wall and co-author with Brian Dobson of the basic text book on the Wall. He has also written on the Antonine Wall and has just completed a book on the Frontiers of the Roman Empire.

John Bryan is Professor of Music and Head of Music and Drama at the University of Huddersfield, where his research and teaching focus on the historically informed performance of a wide range of musical styles. As a member of the Rose Consort of Viols and Musica Antiqua of London, John has given concerts throughout Europe and in the USA and Canada, and made recordings for Naxos, Signum, cpo and Deux-Elles. An artistic adviser to York Early Music Festival, and a contributor to BBC Radio 3’s early music programmes, he also founded the North East Early Music Forum and regularly leads workshops in renaissance and baroque music, including consorts of voices and viols at the Dartington International Summer School, and at courses in Italy and in the USA. He is currently leading a five-year project (2009–14) on ‘The Making of the Viol in Sixteenth-Century England’ funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Beyond the world of early music John has enjoyed conducting York Chamber Orchestra in repertoire from the classical and romantic periods and the twentieth century, and as Musical Director of York Opera he has conducted Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Britten’s Albert Herring.

Having completed an MA in French with English at Edinburgh University, followed by an MA at the Courtauld Institute, Polly Buston is a freelance lecturer at the Courtauld Summer School. She works for art history publishers as editor and picture researcher, and was co-author of Titian’s Venice, a multi-media project accompanying the 2003 National Gallery Titian exhibition.

Started her career as a journalist and fiction-writer before obtaining a PhD in landscape history. She now works as a writer, lecturer and tour guide, and helps to run Bristol University’s MA in Garden History. Recent publications include Icons of Twentieth Century Landscape Design, Policies and Pleasaunces: A guide to the Gardens of Scotland and Paradise of Exiles: The Anglo-American Gardens of Florence.

Formerly a lecturer in planetary geology and volcanology at the Universities of Wales and Sheffield. He has worked with NASA on the volcanoes of Mars and has travelled widely among the world’s volcanic regions. As an astronomer, he has appeared regularly on BBC’s ‘Sky at Night’.

Senior Historian at the Imperial War Museum. During his thirty-seven years there he has worked on many exhibitions and projects including The Churchill Museum, Holocaust exhibition, and D-Day to Victory exhibition. As well as giving frequent lectures, he has made numerous TV and radio appearances as IWM spokesperson, and is an authority on the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.
 

Architect and lecturer at the University of Bath. He has practised and taught in Finland and England, including five years in Northumberland and teaching at Newcastle University. He obtained his PhD from the LSE on Alvar Aalto, and has curated exhibitions on Aalto in London and Finland. He read Architecture at Cambridge and was the founding editor of Scroope: Cambridge Architectural Journal.

Executive and Curator of the Palestine Exploration Fund in London. She has excavated in Jordan with the British Museum, and worked throughout the Middle East, particularly Syria and Lebanon. Widely published on the archaeology and the history of archaeology in the Levant, she is co-author with Dr Raouf Sa’d Abujabber of Beyond the River – Ottoman Transjordan in Original Photographs.

Art historian and lecturer of Late Medieval and Renaissance art. He studied at Parma University, and completed his PhD at Warwick. He was a Rome Scholar at The British School in Rome and fellow of the Biblioteca Hertziana, Rome, and Villa I Tatti, Florence. His research includes iconography and patronage of the Mendicant Orders from the late Middle Ages to the Baroque.

Professor of Music at the University of Manchester. His books include Beethoven and the Creative Process, Beethoven’s Folksong Settings and Beethoven in the Master Musicians series. In 1988 his completion of the first movement of Beethoven’s unfinished Tenth Symphony was performed at the Royal Festival Hall and he has recently published a new performing edition of Beethoven’s thirty-five piano sonatas for the Associated Board.

Military historian and former officer of the Royal Gurkha Rifles. He served mainly in the Far East, but also in Berlin, Cyprus, Belize and Northern Ireland. Author of Wellington, A Military Life; Mud, Blood and Poppycock: Britain and the First World War and Loos 1915, The Unwanted Battle. Television appearances include Napoleon’s Waterloo and Battlefield Detectives. He is an Honorary Research Fellow of the Universities of Birmingham and Kent, a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and a Member of the British Commission for Military History.

Landscape consultant, specialist in the conservation of historic parks and gardens and architectural historian. Obtained an MA in Conservation from York and lectures for Bristol and Oxford Universities. He is an advisor on historic gardens for the National Trust and broadcasts for the BBC and writes for Country Life. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Horticulture and Professional Associate of the Royal Horticultural Society.

Egyptologist who studied Ancient History and Egyptology at University College London. Lectures regularly at the British Museum and at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and is co-author of Great Events of Bible Times. She has excavated at Memphis with the Egypt Exploration Society.

Associate Lecturer in History of Art at Birkbeck College, specialising in 16th-century Italian art and architecture. He studied at the Courtauld and Birkbeck College, University of London and lived in Rome for several years. He has written articles for Arte Veneta, Burlington Magazine and the Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes.

Professor of American Literature at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Read English at Oxford University and has published widely including scholarly works on English and American literature, a co-edited anthology of American poetry about Venice and a guidebook to Byron’s Venice. He is non-fiction editor for the journal Able Muse, a member of the editorial board of the comparative poetry journal Semicerchio and contributes to the Time Out guide to Venice.

Regius Professor of History and President of Wolfson College at the University of Cambridge and Gresham Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College, London. He is author of numerous books on Central European history including The Coming of the Third Reich, The Third Reich in Power and The Third Reich at War, and is currently working on the 1815 to 1914 volume in the Penguin History of Europe.

Lecturer in Museum Studies at UCL Qatar in Doha. She studied Egyptology with Akkadian at the University of Oxford and undertook post-graduate studies at the University of St Andrews and Durham University. She worked for several years as a curator at the University Museums, Durham, and is Chair of the Board of the Egypt Exploration Society.

Art historian and lecturer. She graduated in History and History of Art from Birkbeck College, London University and regular teaches at Birkbeck College, University of London, Morley College and the City Lit. She lectures for the V&A, the National Gallery and for NADFAS branches in Britain and Europe and recent publications include entries in the Companion Guide to European Art.

Senior Curator of French Art at the National Gallery of Scotland and Senior Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh. She is also a Trustee of the Burrell Collection and has curated several major exhibitions at the National Gallery of Scotland, including Impressionism and Scotland and Van Gogh and Britain. Her publications include Monet and French Landscape: Vetheuil and Normandy and Impressionism, Urbanism Environment.

John Fritz studied Anthropology at the University of Chicago and is currently Associate Professor of Archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Since 1981, with George Michell, he has co-directed an international team of researchers at Vijayanagara/Hampi. While carrying out intensive documentation of surface remains, he has written on the city’s spatial layout and cultural meaning. Among his joint publications are Where Gods and Kings Meet, the Royal Centre at Vijayanagara (University of Arizona Press 1984), City of Victory (New York 1991), Hampi, the illustrated guidebook (Bombay 2003), New Light on Hampi (Bombay 2004) and Hampi, a Story in Stone (Eminence Mumbai 2009).

Specialist in mediaeval architecture. She read Art History at Münster University followed by a PhD in Gothic architecture in northern Burgundy from the Courtauld. She has lectured at the Courtauld, Birkbeck and the V&A and was recently visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan.

An Arabist, author, historian and analyst, Eamonn Gearon has been living and working in the Greater Middle East, from Kabul to Casablanca, for the past 20 years. Gearon has written dozens of articles for numerous publications and his latest book – The Sahara: A Cultural History – was published to great acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic.

Musicologist and viola player. He is a founder-member of the Fitzwilliam String Quartet, principal viola with Southern Sinfonia and conductor of The Academy of St Olaves in York. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music and King’s College Cambridge and was a lecturer at the University of York until 1988 and professor of viola at the RNCM for several years. He holds Honorary Doctorates at Bucknell (USA) and York Universities.

Dr Giles Tillotson is Fellow (and former Director) of the Royal Asiatic Society. He has been Reader in History of Art and Chair of Art & Archaeology at SOAS. An expert on the art history of India, his specialisms include the history and architecture of the Rajput courts of Rajasthan and of the Mughal cities of Delhi and Agra; Indian architecture in the period of British rule and after Independence and landscape painting in India. He has lectured widely and is author of numerous books on architecture, history and landscape including Taj Mahal (2008), Jaipur City Palace (2008), Mughal India (1990) and The Tradition of Indian Architecture (1989). He lives in Gurgaon, near Delhi.

Read Archaeology at Cambridge followed by a PhD on the early church at Porec. She has lectured for the WEA, for whom she founded and managed a study tours section, and for various extra-mural departments. She is the co-author of Retrieving the record: a century of archaeology at Porec published by the University of Zagreb.

Biblical archaeologist based at Oxford University, where he also obtained his doctorate. He has lived in Israel and excavated at the Philistine sites of Ekron and Ashkelon. His interests include eastern Mediterranean trade in the Late Bronze Age and the archaeology of religion in ancient Israel and he is currently researching the Palestine Exploration Fund’s excavation in Jerusalem in the 1920s.

Academic tutor in Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Sunderland. He studied Egyptian Archaeology at UCL from where he also obtained his PhD. He is the Field Director of the Egypt Exploration Society’s Theban Harbours and Waterscapes Survey and has worked on archaeological projects at Giza, Memphis, Karnak and Edfu.

Studied Classics at Oxford University with a particular emphasis on Roman history, literature and art. He subsequently studied for a post-graduate degree in Byzantine and Renaissance art at the Courtauld Institute and has taught Greek and Latin and has lectured on the ancient world in Italy and in Greece.

Research Manager for Art, Glasgow Museums and Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Art History, Glasgow University. She graduated from Glasgow with a degree in Art History and English Literature followed by postgraduate research in the USA. She has presented a series of eighteen programmes (STV) on contemporary art and her publications include Boudin at Trouville and Millet to Matisse.

Professor Adam Hardy is an architect and architectural historian. For thirty years he has been studying the architecture of Indian temples, its design principles, and its relationship to Indian society and culture. His many publications on the subject include Indian Temple Architecture: Form and Transformation (New Delhi, 1996) and The Temple Architecture of India (Chichester, 2007). As an architect he has been involved in the design of several Hindu temples in the UK, and is currently the architect for a new temple near Bangalore to be built in the ornate, twelfth-century style of the Hoysala dynasty, using traditional construction techniques. He is Professor of Asian Architecture at Cardiff University, where he runs the research centre PRASADA (Practice, Research and Advancement in South Asian Design and Architecture).

Writer, journalist, broadcaster and blogger. Born and raised in Beirut and the author of numerous award-winning cookbooks including The Fifth Quarter, An Offal Cookbook; Modern Mezze; Savory Baking from the Mediterranean; Mediterranean Street Food; Café Morocco; and Lebanese Cuisine – which was a finalist for the Andre Simon awards. An accomplished photographer and intrepid traveller, she is also fluent in French and Arabic.

Professor of Roman Archaeology at Durham and Director of the Durham Centre for Roman Culture. He is currently directing a major project on Hadrian’s Wall, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. His books include Roman Officers & English Gentlemen, Globalizing Roman Culture, Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen and The Recovery of Roman Britain.

Garden historian and lecturer at the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education, the Royal Horticultural Society, NADFAS and the National Trust. She is the author of Icons of Garden Design, Monet at Giverny and Follies of Europe – architectural extravaganzas and has worked as a broadcaster on television and radio. Garden consultancies include the Royal Opera House’s Production Campus for the Performing Arts.

Journalist and author, now living in a mountain village in Spain. He studied at King’s College, Cambridge and has contributed extensively to national newspapers in Britain on Spanish culture and travel. His books include Spanish Journeys: a Portrait of Spain, Holland: its History, Paintings and People and Crete: its Past, Present and People. Together with his wife, Gaby Macphedran, he has devised many tours in Spain and Portugal.

Former Reader in Classical Archaeology at Cambridge University. His special interest is the archaeology of ancient cities and he has been an excavating archaeologist, working at Carthage for many years and more recently in Rome. He has travelled widely in Greece and Turkey.

Landscape architect, writer, translator and lecturer. He studied Modern Languages at Oxford followed by a Postgraduate Diploma in Landscape Design. He is a former lecturer at the University of Central England and committee member of the British Czech & Slovak Association. His publications include the Insight pocket guide: Czech Republic, Key Guide Prague and Berlitz Czech Republic.

Senior Curatorial Officer at Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum and previously worked at the Tate. She specialised in 19th-century British and French art at the Courtauld Institute and obtained her PhD from the University of Sussex on Pre-Raphaelite art. She has spoken on art, exhibitions and current affairs for BBC Coventry and Warwickshire.

Art historian and linguist and a specialist in the art of Scandinavia and Central and Eastern Europe. She has an MA from the Warburg Institute and a PhD from the University of St Andrews. She has taught at the Universities of Copenhagen, St. Andrews, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. The author of Art and Design in Romania 1866–1927, her current research includes Scandinavian national revival movements and the work of Asger Jorn.

Author and journalist whose books include biographies of Handel and Purcell, the short story collections Allegro Postillions and Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture, Italian Journeys and The Siege Of Venice. He writes programme notes for Covent Garden, ENO, WNO, Opera North and the Buxton Festival and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Trustee of the London Library. He teaches English at the City of London School.

Professor of Arabic at SOAS and formerly Professor of Middle Eastern History at the University of St Andrews. He studied at the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies in Beirut, and read Arabic and Persian at Cambridge. He is author of The Early Abbasid Caliphate; The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates; Crusader Castles and Muslim Spain and Portugal.

Marine biologist and expert on the Cornwall Coast Path. He was Coastwatch Co-ordinator for the Nature Conservancy Council, helped set up the Centre for Applied Zoology at Cornwall College, Newquay and ran foundation degrees in Zoological Conservation and Marine Aquaculture. His books include Cornwall from the Coast Path and Exploring the Camel Estuary.

Professor of the Classical Studies at The Open University. Her publications include Greek and Roman Medicine and Midwifery, Obstetrics and the Rise of Gynaecology: Uses of a Sixteenth-Century Medical Compendium. She has held research fellowships at Cambridge, Newcastle and in the Netherlands and visiting professorships in the US and Canada and at the Peninsula Medical School (Exeter and Plymouth).

Architectural historian specialising in 16th- to 18th-century British architectural and social history. She studied History and History of Art at London University, followed by an MA at the Courtauld Institute. She is Course Director of the V&A’s High Renaissance-Baroque Year Course, author of many articles and of London’s Country Houses. Visit Caroline's website.

Art historian specialising in 18th- and 19th-century architecture and decorative arts and teaches Art History at the Berlin College of Music. He studied at the Universities of Würzburg, Berlin and the Courtauld and is a contributor to Macmillan’s Dictionary of Art and author of books on the Würzburg Residenz and the Baroque gardens at Herrenhausen.

A history graduate, Anthony has worked with and for the National Trust in various capacities for almost thirty years. He wrote Victorian & Edwardian Country House Life for Batsford and writes regular profiles of country houses for the Historic Houses Association magazine. He is also a writer of narrative travel and guide books, and has contributed articles to over forty newspapers and magazines.

Studied at Cambridge, and received a doctorate from the Courtauld. She has contributed to many academic journals, and is the author of several books, including The Gallery Goers Guide, Claude Lorrain, Holbein, and Caravaggio: a Life. In 2003, she was Assistant Director at the British School in Rome and is now a Research Fellow there. Has also been a Research Scholar at the Getty Institute, LA.

Music historian and broadcaster with a particular interest in early music and 19th- and 20th-century French music. He has published widely on Debussy and Berlioz and has taught at Lancaster and Exeter universities and the Royal College of Music. In 1994 he was admitted to the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres at the rank of Chevalier. He read Music at York University where he specialised in Baroque performance.

Art historian specialising in 15th-century Italian painting. His first degree and PhD were from Rome University followed by research at the Warburg Institute in London. He has published articles on the classical tradition in Italian art of the 15th century and contributed to the Macmillan Dictionary of Art. He has also written on Mantegna and Renaissance drawings.

Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Edinburgh and a specialist in the history and culture of ancient Iran, Egypt and Greece. He studied Classics and Drama at Hull University and obtained his MA in Ancient History and PhD from Cardiff University. He has contributed to history documentaries for Channel 4, the History Channel and the BBC.

Byzantine art historian specialising in sculpture, mosaics and icons. She studied History and Archaeology at Oxford and is Head of e-learning at the British Museum and a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College, London. Her publications include the illustrated history Byzantium and Christian Art.

Following an MA in History from Edinburgh University, Gabrielle MacPhedran worked for the BBC, initially for the Burmese Section, later in Radio 4 and in commercial television. She has written widely on travel and is now living in a Spanish village. She organises walking tours with her husband Adam Hopkins in Spain.

An acclaimed television producer and broadcast executive for thirty years, Dennis’ career ranged from directing cultural and historical documentaries as Head of Music for BBC television, followed by four years as General Director of English National Opera. He writes and presents major events and historical travelogues for BBC Radio and is currently preparing a television series on operatic history.

Writer and lecturer now living near Orvieto producing olive oil and wine. Worked for the Italian Ministry of Arts in the field of wall-painting conservation and has taught at Rome University, the University of Massachusetts and was Dean of European Studies for a consortium of American Universities. For six years he walked every path and village of the sixty inhabited Greek islands which culminated in the twenty volume McGilchrist’s Greek Islands, abbreviated to the Blue Guide to The Aegean Islands.

Specialist in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, with degrees in art history from the University of East Anglia and the Courtauld. He lectures at Birkbeck College’s Faculty of Continuing Education, Birkbeck College and Oxford’s Department of Continuing Education. He is Honorary Secretary of the British Archaeological Association and author of the Blue Guide: Normandy and Blue Guide: Loire Valley. Has edited collections of essays on mediaeval Anjou, King’s Lynn and the Fens and the mediaeval cloister.

After reading History at Oxford University, Patrick Mercer joined the Army, completing nine tours in Northern Ireland and commanding his battalion in Bosnia, Canada and Tidworth. Mentioned in despatches in Northern Ireland in 1983, he received a gallantry commendation in 1990, the MBE in 1992 and the OBE in 1997. He left the army in 1999 and accepted a post as the Defence Reporter for BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today Programme’ and then became a freelance journalist for the Daily Telegraph. After winning the Newark seat in the 2001 Election, he became Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence and, in 2003, Shadow Minister for Homeland Security and, in 2008, was appointed as Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Counter-Terrorism. He has published fiction and non-fiction books on the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny.

For many years Andrew has been Keeper of Art based at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery and curated many loan exhibitions, a good number including works of art drawn from the great houses of East Anglia. Accompanying publications have acted as regional assessments of the cultural identity of East Anglia, especially of Norfolk. Notable subjects include The Impact of the European Grand Tour; The Influence of Dutch and Flemish Painting; Portraiture. In partnership with the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, he has co-authored a reassessment of the collection of British and European works of art collected by Sir Robert Walpole for Houghton Hall A Capital Collection. A specialist in the study of the country house and the history of collections, he is a Visiting Fellow in the School of World Art Studies & Museology at the University of East Anglia. He is currently writing a book on the impact of Thomas Coke’s European Grand Tour on Holkham Hall, Norfolk.

Oswyn Murray is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, the Royal Danish Academy and the Scuola Normale di Pisa. He was a Classics Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford for 37 years (1968-2004), during which time he held the posts of Senior Tutor, Vice-Master and Praefectus of Holywell Manor Graduate Centre; he was responsible for overseeing the college’s major new buildings programme, and for reforming graduate studies in the university. He is author of Early Greece, The Greek City and In vino veritas and more than a hundred articles, mainly on Greek history. He was history editor of the Oxford History of the Classical World (1986) and is a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement on cultural history and literary topics. He is currently working to finish a Herodotus commentary, and on a book about the influence of ancient history on European culture from 1700 to the present day, as well as writing two general books, one on the Ancient Greeks, the other on the history of pleasure in western culture from Homer to Freud.

Senior lecturer in Architectural History at the University of Bath, specialising in urban and architectural history of Early Modern Italy. He obtained his PhD at the Courtauld Institute and has held fellowships at the University of Warwick, the Medici Archive Project, and Harvard University’s Villa I Tatti (Florence).

Lecturer and writer specialising in 19th-century British Art. A graduate of the Courtauld Institute he has organised exhibitions in museums in Britain and abroad. In 2004 he curated the Tate Britain exhibition, ‘Pre-Raphaelite Vision: Truth to Nature’. His particular interest in John Ruskin has led to the MRT trip ‘Ruskin’s Venice’, and he is presently working on an exhibition of Ruskin’s drawings for venues in Canada and Scotland. Over a period of about fourteen years, he has led many trips to Sicily, and is fascinated both by the ancient, medieval and baroque buildings to be seen there, and by the island’s political and social history.

Author of the acclaimed biography, Leonardo da Vinci: the Flights of the Mind and numerous other books, most recently, The Lodger, an intimate study of Shakespeare’s life in London in the first years of the 17th century. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and recipient of the Hawthornden prize, the James Tait Black prize for biography and the Crime Writers’ Association ‘Gold Dagger’ award for non-fiction. 

Dr Tom Nickson Lecturer in Medieval Art & Architecture at the University of York. He studied Art History at Cambridge and the Courtauld Institute and is interested in medieval art and architecture from across medieval Europe. His research and publications have focused on the art and architecture of medieval Spain, especially artistic contacts between Spain’s different religious communities.

A leading specialist on piano-playing and a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 3. He was for many years the Chief Music Critic of The Daily Telegraph. His publications include Rachmaninoff and contributions to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

Graduated from Oxford and worked in the Education Department at the V&A. She ran the art history programme for the Department for Continuing Education at Bristol where she completed her PhD on late mediaeval Marian iconography and now holds a similar post at Oxford University. She has published on French and English Romanesque and on Marian iconography.

Following a career in international PR, Alan is now a travel writer and historian. His books include Fortresses of Faith: the Kirchenburgen of Transylvania; Winds of Sorrow: Travels in Transylvania and Through Hitler’s Back Door: SOE in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. He has travelled extensively in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Freelance garden designer, writer, broadcaster and artist. A member of the Society of Garden Designers and member of the Garden Media Guild, she has created Show Gardens at Chelsea and Hampton Court and has designed over 100 gardens. She lectures to garden societies and is a regular broadcaster on BBC Somerset. Her particular interest is in 20th-century and contemporary garden design.

Dramaturg of Welsh National Opera since 1989. After studying English at Cambridge, he taught for two years in Italy and for three at Kyoto University. He has published novels, poetry, translations of works of art history and reviews of books on music and has written libretti for children’s opera and oratorio with Welsh composer Mervyn Burtch.

Archaeologist, writer and broadcaster, perhaps best known for his BBC2 series Meet the Ancestors and Mapping the Town on BBC Radio 4. He has long been involved with the archaeology of Wessex, where he has lived and worked for over 30 years. He is the author of a series of English Heritage books about Stonehenge (including the current guide book).

Editor of the English Heritage Red Guides. After reading Classics at Oxford, she worked for Country Life and Tatler and wrote obituaries for the Daily Telegraph. Bewitched by Romania during the Nineties, she took an MA at the Courtauld, specialising in post-byzantine art in Romania and in 2008 published her book Transylvania. Other publications include the English Heritage Red Guide to Great Yarmouth Row Houses and Greyfriars’ Cloister.

Archaeologist, interpreter and lecturer. She studied Near Eastern Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University of London, and an MA in South Asian Studies from SOAS, and has also studied at Heidelberg University. Her linguistic repertoire includes three ancient Near-Eastern languages and several modern European ones. She has taught at UCL, SOAS and Cambridge University and interpreted for the EU and UN. With Jane Streetly she has written Blue Guide: Jordan and Istanbul: A Travellers’ Guide, and over the past twenty years has led many tours in India.

Daughter of Sir Winston Churchill’s eldest child, Diana, and Cabinet Minister Duncan Sandys. She has published books on various aspects of Winston Churchill’s life combining historical research with personal anecdotes, her most recent being We Shall Not Fail - The Inspiring Leadership of Winston Churchill. As a speaker, she draws on her intimate knowledge of Winston Churchill’s personal and political life.

Art historian specialising in late-nineteenth and twentieth-century art, design and architecture. She gained a first-class degree at Birkbeck, University of London, and an MA in Cultural Memory and museum studies at the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, before completing a PhD at the Royal College of Art on turn-of-the-century Vienna. Diane lectures widely at Birkbeck and other institutions, and combines research interests in the visual arts and music.

Head of Department at the Research Institute for Art History at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. He specialises in the 19th century, in particular public buildings, country houses, Gothic revival and garden history. A native Hungarian with fluent English, he lectures in the UK, across Europe and the USA and co-edited The Architecture of Historic Hungary.

Emeritus Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a Past President of both the International Dickens Fellowship and the Dickens Society of America. His publications include Dickens and Women and An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Dickens and the widely-acclaimed Charles Dickens. For many years he was the editor of The Dickensian and he has lectured on Dickens and other Victorian writers to a wide variety of audiences worldwide.

Hamilton Harty Chair of Music at Queen’s University, Belfast, and an authority on Czech music. An author, broadcaster and journalist, he has published books on the Prague Provisional Theatre, Dvořák’s Cello Concerto and music in 19th-century Ireland. He is a graduate of the University of Oxford, has studied at the Charles University in Prague and has worked extensively in university education.

Social and cultural historian with degrees from Cambridge and Cornell. He worked for many years at the BBC producing and presenting radio features on musical, cultural and historical subjects. His books include studies of the Amadeus Quartet, Plácido Domingo and the cultural impact of The Hitler Emigrés and, most recently, The Gilded Stage: A Social History of Opera.

Military historian specialising in the Great War and has operated his own battlefield tours since 1988. He organises specialist study days using original artefacts for schools, colleges and museums throughout the country. He is a regular visiting lecturer at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford and has appeared in documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4.

Co-author of Blue Guide: Jordan and Istanbul: A Traveller’s Guide. She was born and brought up in Trinidad, studied French and Spanish at university and now works as a conference interpreter and travel writer. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and has travelled widely throughout Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

Joachim has been lecturing for MRT since 1990. Formerly lecturer in Art History and Fellow at the University of Buckingham, he now organises tours and adult art education event. Lectures regularly at the V&A. He studied Art History at the universities of Nuremberg and St Andrews, where he also taught and has lived in Venice and Florence for several years. He specialises in Renaissance and Baroque culture north and south of the Alps, though his interests include German and Italian art of most ages.
 

Music historian, critic and lecturer, formerly a Professor at the Royal College of Music and President of the Incorporated Society of Musicians (2008–2009). He is a broadcaster on BBC Radio 3 and 4, widely known for combining immense learning with wit and enthusiasm and is a regular speaker on Martin Randall Travel festivals.

Has worked as teacher, publisher, writer, photographer and television producer. She studied Mediaeval History and Moral Philosophy at the University of St Andrews and since 1989 has lived in Amman. Her books include Testament to the Bushmen (with Laurens van der Post), Imperial Istanbul, Petra and the Lost Kingdom of the Nabataeans, Yemen: Land and People (with Sarah Searight) and Jordan: Images from the Air.

A leading expert on the Baltic States, he travels there as visiting university lecturer, tourism consultant and tour leader. He read Chinese at Cambridge and has worked in tourism in China, the USSR and many Third World countries. His publications include The Bradt Guide: Estonia, The Bradt Guide: Tallinn, The Bradt Guide: Baltic Cities, A Footprints Guide to Berlin.

Luke specialises in Islamic material culture, coins, buildings and artefacts, of the pre-Mongol period. He has a particular interest in Central-Asian history before the coming of the Turks, and has published widely on the history of the Samanids of Samarqand and Bukhara (9th–10th century AD), the last Iranian dynasty to rule the region before the advent of the Seljuqs. He is interested in the relationship between word and image in early Islam and is currently working on a book on the emergence of Islamic visual culture in the Umayyad period (7th–8th century AD).

Art historian, lecturer and artist with a special interest in Spanish history and art. She read Modern History at Oxford, and completed her MA at the Courtauld. She has worked at Tate Britain, the Arts Council, as a consultant for Christie’s and at the Courtauld and lectures for various institutions including the National Trust, the Art Fund, and also for the University of Cambridge International Summer School and the Courtauld Institute Summer Course.

Art historian and author specialising in Spain and the USA. His books include Gaudí, In the Kitchens of Castile and Guernica and he has published in the Burlington Magazine and Wall Street Journal. He read languages at Utrecht University and Art History at the Courtauld, and undertook postgraduate studies in American art of the 1960s. He has worked in England, the USA and Spain as exhibitions organiser, TV researcher and critic and is currently working for prolonged periods of time in New York.

Musicologist, author, journalist, broadcaster and lecturer. He works as a project consultant for many early music groups, conductors and singers. He is co-editor of The Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia, is preparing new editions of several of Handel’s music dramas and is a critic for The Gramophone, BBC Radio 3 and Goldberg. He also writes essays for record labels including BIS, Chandos, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI and Harmonia Mundi.

Classicist and art historian specialising in mediaeval Spain. She studied at Oxford, Birkbeck and obtained her PhD at the Courtauld. Her book Views of Transition: Liturgy and Illumination in Medieval Spain was published by the British Library. She lectures at the Courtauld, V&A and at Morley College, and in 2011–12 will be an Associate Lecturer at Birkbeck College.

Art historian and lecturer specialising in the Italian Renaissance. She obtained her PhD from the Warburg Institute, University of London, on Sienese society in the 15th century and has published articles on related topics and lectured for the National Gallery. She currently teaches at King’s College, London, and has led many tours in Italy.
 

Music writer, lecturer and broadcaster for BBC Radio 3. He writes for The Daily Telegraph, BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone and gives classes in Lied history and interpretation at Birkbeck College, London. He read French and German at Cambridge and later studied Music at the Guildhall. His publications include Schubert: the complete song texts and Pocket Guide to Haydn.

Art historian and curator, and currently Head of MA programmes at the Courtauld. She read English Literature at Oxford and has an MA and PhD from the Courtauld. Curatorships include Paris – Capital of the Arts, 1937–1957 at the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Raoul Dufy retrospective at the Hayward Gallery. Her books include Matisse and The Visual World of French Theory: Figurations. In 1997 she was made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres for services to French art and culture.

Matthew studied History of Art and Architecture at Brown University, Rhode Island, has an MA at the Courtauld Institute and has just completed a Ph.D on the architectural history of Beverley Minster at Duke University, North Carolina. He is currently teaching in Elgin, Scotland and writing one of the volumes for Pevsner’s Buildings of Scotland Series. He has published articles on English Gothic architecture, French Gothic sculpture, and the re-use of Gothic in the post-mediaeval period.