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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dr Cathy Oakes, MA, PhD, author and lecturer, directs the History of Art programme for Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. She is a medievalist specialising in Romanesque art and architecture.Her publications have included work on French and English Romanesque subjects, and articles on Marian iconography.

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.

Dr Michael Squire is a Research Fellow in Classics and Art History at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and concurrently holds an Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung Fellowship in Munich and Berlin. His books include Panorama of the Classical World (2004), Image and Text in Graeco- Roman Antiquity (2009) and The Art of the Body: Antiquity and its Legacy (2010).

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.

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.