Mary Acton BA studied at the Courtauld Institute and has taught at Brookes University and de Montfort University. She is currently the Associate Tutor in Art History for Oxford University Department of Continuing Education and co-Director of the undergraduate certificate in the History of Art.

Catherine Alexander MA, PhD is Academic Manager and Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute. She has written a number of books on Shakespeare and is currently working on the new edition of Henry VIII for Penguin.

Elizabeth Allen MA is a lecturer for the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery and has taken many successful study days and courses for Inscape, especially to the Queens Gallery.

Emma-Rose Barber BA, MA was educated at the University of East Anglia and Birkbeck College. She is a freelance art historian who has taught in Italy (The British Institute in Florence), London and Kent, where she works for the Open University, the WEA and other adult education institutions. She specialises in the art of the Italian Renaissance, modern art in Italy and women in art.  

Michael Bellamy BA graduated from the Courtauld. He has worked as a Senior Specialist in Old Master Paintings for Christie’s and as a Heritage Protection Advisor with English Heritage, listing buildings. He is currently responsible for their West Midlands region.

Simon Bradley studied history at Christ Church, Oxford, and then followed the well-trodden path to the Courtauld Institute, where he concentrated on the art and architecture of the 18c and early 19c. Since 1994, he has worked for the Pevsner Architectural Guides and it fell to him to revise the original Pevsner volume for central London, published in two volumes, The City of London (1997) and Westminster (2003). He has also published various articles on architectural subjects and has made occasional broadcasts on London themes.

Steven Brindle PhD is an architectural historian and works for English Heritage as Inspector of Ancient Monuments for London. He is the co-author of the Blue Guide to the Country Houses of England and author of Paddington: Its History and Architecture, and has contributed to numerous other publications on architecture.

Spike Bucklow is one of the foremost conservators of painting in the UK. He originally trained as a chemist, specialising in synthetic organic chemistry. In addition, he has a degree in Chemistry, a diploma in Artificial Intelligence, a Masters in Painting Conservation and a doctorate in Art History. He is now an author (The Alchemy of Paint, Marion Boyars Publishers) and Senior Research Scientist for the Hamilton Kerr Institute, Cambridge University.

Susanne Carr BA has degree from Brighton University and has been a freelance lecturer in the history of art since 1983. She has been a tutor for Oxford University Department of Continuing Education for the last 10 years. She also lectures for the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education, for NADFAS, the WEA and numerous art societies. She has led study tours to Florence for 15 consecutive years and has also lectured on gallery weekends in other European cities. Her interests are eclectic, ranging over the history of painting from 1200 to 1950, but she perhaps loves best the Italian Renaissance and painting of that era in Flanders. She has a great gift for communication and her main aim is to share with her students her infectious enthusiasm for the history of art.

Alison Carter BA, PGCE is a linguist and translator. She edited the alumni magazine for King’s College, Cambridge, for 10 years, and now works in a similar role for Fitzwilliam College. After her first visit to Albania in 2005 she became interested in the processes and issues involved in the country’s development post Communism. She returns regularly and has been engaged in helping to create a transboundary park in the north of the country.

Norman Coady MA is an expert in the Italian Renaissance. He regularly lectures for the National Gallery, the Wallace Collection, London University and many other institutions, and has led many tours to Italy.

Victoria Condie teaches Old and Middle English literature for Greyfriars Hall in Oxford, and Middle English literature and history of art for Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. She has lectured in Cambridge and is particularly interested in the relationship between texts and images in the Medieval period.

Michael Douglas-Scott MA, PhD studied at the Courtauld Institute and obtained his doctorate from Birkbeck College. He has lectured widely on 16th-century art and architecture and has written articles for the Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Arte Veneta and Burlington Magazine.

Mark Duffy studied history at Cambridge and art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art. His bestselling study of medieval funeral monuments and meaning, Royal Tombs of Medieval England, was published in 2003.

Jim Eyre OBE BA Hons AA DipArch RIBA is a Director of Wilkinson Eyre Architects, the only practice to have won the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize two years in succession. He has a particular interest in combining architectural creativity and engineering principles in his design work, leading projects such as the iconic Gateshead Millennium Bridge. Jim has lectured widely in the UK and overseas, recently leading a studio at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and is Honorary Treasurer of the Architectural Association Council. He was awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering President’s Medal for the promotion of engineering excellence in June 2004

Clare Ford-Wille BA has been a lecturer for Birkbeck College, London University for over 30 years and is well known for her lectures for NADFAS, the Art Fund and the National Gallery. She has led numerous study tours abroad.

Nicholas Friend MA, Founder and Director of Inscape, has been teaching adults in galleries, museums and country houses for 25 years. He has taught for the Wallace Collection, the National Gallery and Sotheby’s, and has conducted many study tours at home and abroad. He is Founder-Director of Cambridge University’s History of Art Summer School, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Richard Gordon MA, PhD is an ancient historian with a particular interest in art and iconography. He taught ancient civilisation for many years at the University of East Anglia, but now lives in Bavaria. He has lectured on archaeological and art historical topics in Europe and the United States; his main interest is in myth and the history of Greek and Roman religion.

Oliver Gosling MA is a professional painter who trained at the Royal College of Art. Since graduating in 1985, he had had several exhibitions in London, Brussels, Milan and more recently, two solo shows in Tokyo. He is also a freelance tutor and lecturer at the University of Brighton, Oxford College of Art and Design, Christie’s Education and Oxford University’s Continuing Education Department.

Paul Gwynne MA, PhD is a scholar of the Renaissance. He lives in Rome, where he is Associate Professor in Classics at the American University. His book on Renaissance Panegyric poetry, Poets and Princes, is due to be published in 2009. He has taught on many courses and led countless tours in Italy.

Susie Hamilton is an artist who trained at Byam Shaw and St Martin’s Schools of Art. She also has a PhD in English Literature from London University. Since 1997 she has exhibited with the Paul Stolper Gallery, London, which published Riddled with Light, a book about her work from 1996–2006. Recently she has also had solo shows at Galerie Trafo in Oslo and Triumph Gallery in Moscow.

Aidan Hart MA has been painting and carving icons full-time for over 20 years. He studied the art in England, and also on Mount Athos in Greece, where he lived for two years. His works can be found all over the world, including the UK, Greece, Russia, China, the USA and Australia.

Juliet Heslewood BA MA lived in France for many years, where she worked as a lecturer and Guide Conferencier in French Architecture and as a writer: her publications include two best-selling books on art for young people and the recently-published highly acclaimed Mother a book about artists’ portraits of their mothers.

Nicholas James DipEA, MA, PhD is a consultant in the management and interpretation of historical resources. He has carried out research on the archaeology and social anthropology of Mexico and Guatemala over the course of 25 years. He is author of an introductory history of the region’s indigenous peoples, and an experienced hand in leading tours to Mexico.

Shirley Kay BA has lived and worked in Arab countries for almost 20 years and has written 15 books on the region. She studied at Cambridge, the Institute of Archaeology, London, and the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies, Lebanon. She spent two-and-a-half years in Morocco and recently worked on an excavation near Rabat. She has led many tours to the Arab world, for which she still feels nostalgic.

Alex Koller MA, PhD studied art history at Salzburg University, Austria, and then researched his PhD on English post-Reformation glass-painting at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Since then has worked as a freelance lecturer on different programmes run by Cambridge University including cultural tours in Europe and Asia.

Charles Metcalfe is one of the most spontaneous and amusing wine critics in Britain and a well-known face on UK television, having been part of the ITV This Morning team for 12 years. He has presented wine and food programmes on Granada Sky and also worked on BBCTV, Carlton Food Network and Sky’s UKFood. He is Associate Editor of WINE Magazine, and co-chairman of the International WINE Challenge, the world’s biggest wine competition.

Mark Powell MA studied languages and art at Durham University, the Ruskin Art School and St John's College, Oxford. He started to explore the art and architecture of Central and Eastern Europe while teaching in Vienna. He has been lecturing in Humanities at Buckingham University for five years, has written several publications on Eastern Europe and has given many lectures on art and architecture at Cambridge.

Hubert Pragnell trained at Goldsmith’s College, London and the The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford. He also gained an M.A. in history from the University of Kent and has written several books on architecture including “Britain. A guide to Architectural Styles” and “Industrial Britain, the Architectural Heritage”. He recently retired after spending 36 years teaching, in order to focus on topographical drawing and painting.

Jo Rhymer MA specialises in late 19th- and 20th-century art in Britain and Europe and is particularly interested in the French visual arts of the 19th century. She lectures regularly for the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery and has led many popular and successful study days for Inscape.

Nigel Sewell is a lively and informative member of the teaching staff at Compton Verney, the magnificent and grand country house-cum-art gallery in Warwickshire. He specialises in Art History and has been working at Compton Verney for four years.

Peter Shahbenderian MA, PhD has lectured at the Universities of Edinburgh and London and has directed a number of international development projects. He has led study tours to the Caucasus and has a wide knowledge of the art and architecture of Armenia. He also speaks Armenian.

Simon Shaw-Miller PhD is Senior Lecturer in History of Art at Birkbeck College and is also Honorary Research Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music. He is the author of Visible Deeds of Music: Art and Music from Wagner to Cage.

Michael Squire PhD is a Research Fellow at Christ’s College, Cambridge, working on a variety of topics in the field of Graeco-Roman visual culture and the Classical tradition.

Andrew Tanser BA ARBS trained initially as an architectural stone and wood carver. At 21, he went on to study as an industrial designer and work in London. Since 1993 Andrew has been producing his own work and has undertaken a wide variety of commissions and Public Art projects.

Zoë Telford MA studied painting at Edinburgh College of Art before taking an MA in Twentieth Century Art History. Working for galleries and colleges in London, she has a wide range of teaching experience and a friendly approach, combining sound historical knowledge with an artist’s enthusiasm for the visual.

Gail Turner MA has degrees from Oxford University and the Courtauld Institute. She began her career as a consultant to Christies, then worked for Tate Britain and for a variety of museums in Italy, Peru, Poland and Spain. A painter and etcher, she is also a popular lecturer for NADFAS, the Art Fund, Cambridge University Art History Summer School. She has led art study tours to different parts of Spain, for which she has a special passion.

Geoffrey Tyack MA, PhD, FSA is the Director of the Stanford University Programme in Oxford and a Fellow of Kellogg College, University of Oxford. He has written many books and is currently completing the revision of the Berkshire volume in the Pevsner Buildings of England series, for publication later this year.

Lucy Walker MA has a degree in history and Italian and a diploma in archaeology. She is actively involved in archaeological fieldwork and research and is currently manager of the Cambridge Troina Project in Sicily. Lucy is interested in encouraging people to explore archaeological sites and historic landscapes.

Nicholas Watkins, Emeritus Reader and Fellow of the Department of History of Art and Film of the University of Leicester, is a leading authority on the art of the late 19th and 20th centuries. He is the author of some five books and numerous exhibition catalogues, reviews and articles. He has had considerable experience lecturing and taking groups on guided tours to museums and galleries both in the UK and abroad.

Carolyn Watts MA, PgDip is a photographer, artist and visual arts reviewer. She was educated at Oxford and the University of Westminster and has degrees in literature, social anthropology and photography. She is interested in the social history of photography. Its ability to capture time and light still fascinates her, as do the mysteries of the darkroom.

Dr Antonia Whitley is an independent art historian with a particular interest the in art, architecture and culture of the Italian Renaissance. Her doctoral thesis from the Warburg Institute (University of London) was an interdisciplinary study of Sienese society in the 15th century. She has led numerous study tours to Italy over the last 10 years.

Tim Wilcox MA, M.Phil is an authority on English watercolour painting and has wide interests in British and Continental art. He has curated exhibitions for the Tate, the British Museum and many regional museums, most recently on Constable and Dame Laura Knight. He has contributed to catalogues of exhibitions in France, Switzerland and Italy, and in 2008 is invited to lecture at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven USA. He is an Associate Lecturer in the History of Art at the University of Surrey, and a regular contributor to the Cambridge International Summer School.

Richard Williams MA, PhD is a lecturer at the National Gallery and teaches degree courses at Birkbeck College. He has given lectures at a wide range of museums and universities in the UK and abroad. His specialist subject is Northern Renaissance art, which has been the focus of his numerous publications.

Francis Woodman MA, PhD is a well-known medievalist with many publications to his name. He has taught in the art history departments of University College London and the University of East Anglia. He is currently Academic Development Officer (Art History) at the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education. Dr Woodman has led many architectural tours in the UK, Europe, the Near East and Asia.

Diana Wyatt MA, PhD studied English literature and language at Glasgow University before undertaking postgraduate research in English and medieval studies at York University. An experienced researcher and a skilled tutor, Dr Wyatt currently teaches part-time at Oxford University’s Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.