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I have lived in Oxford for the last 35 years with my wife and family. Oxford is a city which I consider one of the most beautiful in the world.

I also have the good fortune to live very close to the Cotswold’s and its historic towns and villages. I have taken full advantage of this through my interest in running and participating in races in this area with my Oxford based running club, and also by regularly walking along the many paths available within the Cotswold region.

I have a strong interest in how landscapes are developed over time, the historic development of our local heritage and the amusing anecdotes. So, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to train to become a Blue Badge Tourist Guide, as this reflected so closely my personal interests. Since taking this course it is now a great privilege to introduce visitors to my home city and region and to help them to enjoy visiting these sights as much as I do.

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Proud Manxman (from the Isle of Man), Proud Veterinary Surgeon and now… Proud Blue Badge Tourist Guide for the Heart of England.

Over a 32-year career, I have helped budgerigars from Birmingham, canaries from Cardiff (South Wales), cats from Clacton (Essex), gerbils from Gillingham (Kent), hounds from Hayle (Cornwall), sheep from Surrey, and Yorkshire Terriers from York… I have enjoyed living in and exploring many different parts of England and Wales, but at the end of the working week it was always a joy to return to my wife, Claire, and our home - Oxford in the Heart of England.

Now, in a new chapter, I want to share this glorious region: opening up not only historic, attractive settlements and showing off ‘our green and pleasant land’, but also bringing to life the stories - big and small, both quirky and world changing - which have shaped the lives of its inhabitants.

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A Scotsman as a tourist guide in the “Heart of England”?

Surely not?

Indeed so.

Having spent a large part of my adult life in England after growing up in the Western Isles of Scotland, I can say that I have become (partially) Anglicised!! With my family grown up, I felt that a new career involving my love of storytelling, history, literature, nature and art (oh, and some sport) would suit me. I embarked on a “Heart of England” Tourist Guide training course which I found to be extremely challenging but exactly in line with my interests.

So, I would be very happy to share my wide range of knowledge with you. I would do so in a passionate, interesting and good-humoured manner. I have an enquiring mind and always have an interest in other people – especially from other cultures.

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After graduating in English, I completed a thirty-year career as a police officer in Hertfordshire and the Metropolitan Police. For most of that time I worked as a detective and specialised for many years on the investigation of fraud and, later, homicide.

On retirement from the Metropolitan Police, and with an MA in Renaissance Studies, I moved to Herefordshire and taught English for six years. Since then I have completed more than seventy tours as a guide on sightseeing- holidays in England and Europe.

I’ve really fallen in love with the Heart of England region and am passionate about sharing with others my love of its history, Roman history, the Gunpowder Plot, the Civil War and much else; and its literary heritage, Shakespeare, Langland, Housman, George Eliot, CS Lewis, Tolkien, Edward Thomas and many others.