I was born and brought up in South Buckinghamshire.  I read Botany at University College Oxford.  After graduation, I worked for two years as a trainee at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden.  I then took a National Certificate in Horticulture at Askham Bryan College York.  This was followed by a one-year traineeship at the Savill Garden Windsor, and 15-months as a diploma student at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.  In 1985 I was awarded a Master of Horticulture by the Royal Horticultural Society of London.

From January 1986 to July 2014 I  worked at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, firstly as General Foreman, then as Horti Praefectus (from 1988) and finally as Director (from 2002 to 2014).

Between 1992 & 2000 the Oxford Botanic Garden won 4 gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show London.

In 2009 the Botanic Garden was one of seven Oxford collections to be awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for providing imaginative educational programmes for adults, students, children and the general public, thereby breathing new life into education for people of all ages and enriching their lives.

In 2010 I was elected as a Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London.  In the same year I present a series of 3 one-hour films on BBC4 on the history of Botany

I left the Oxford Botanic Garden in August 2014 to take up the position of Senior College Lecturer in Plant Biology at Somerville College, Oxford, and I now hold similar positions at Pembroke, Hertford, and Worcester College.

I have been giving talks since 1985 to a variety of groups in Britain & Ireland, mainland Europe, North America, and Australia including gardening clubs & societies (local, regional, & national), WIs, u3as, and Arts Societies.