Holts Tours Art, Music, Opera, Gardens, History, Archaeology, Architecture cultural holidays

Holts Art, History and Architecture Tours - Our tour guides

The one thing all our expert tour guides have in common is they are passionate about their subjects and are all specialists in the tours that they lead. You couldn't be in safer hands whether it be learning about botany in Crete or discovering the delights of Vienna. Holts Tours only use the best people for the job.
Andrew Allen studied the History of Art at the University of East Anglia and obtained his MA in mediaeval and early Renaissance paintings. He lectured at Anglia Ruskin University and now teaches humanities in Norfolk, where he lives. He is Visiting Lecturer for local higher education projects. Andrew has led many cultural tours to every continent.
Paul Clarke studied Horticulture at the University of London where he obtained his degree before going on to obtain a diploma in landscape architecture. Although his special subjects are the design and history of Italian gardens Paul has led many tours botanical tours to Crete and other destinations around the world. He lives in Suffolk and divides his time between leading tours and running his own garden design studio.
Group Captain Mike Clegg BA (Hons) DIP C1 Stud (open) had an RAF career largely associated with marine patrol operations. He first became interested in archaeology when he participated in an underwater survey of the Roman harbour of Sabrartha in Libya. Postings in Malta and Naples enabled him to visit many sites around the Mediterranean. He was a founder member of the Naples International Archaeological Society, undertaking lectures, tours and excavations. Mike has a First Class Honours Degree and a Diploma in Classical Studies awarded by the Open University. He is now a NADFAS lecturer, leading tours to many areas of the classical world and has been delighting Holts travellers for many years with his knowledge and enthusiastic communication.
Major JGH Corrigan MBE was commissioned from The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1962 and was an officer of the Royal Gurkha Rifles before retiring from the Army in 1998. He served mainly in the Far East, but also in Berlin, Cyprus, Belize and Northern Ireland. His last appointment was Commanding Officer of the Gurkha Centre in Hampshire. Gordon Corrigan is now a Military Historian. He is the author of Sepoys in the Trenches, The Indian Corps on the Western Front 1914 - 1915, (1999); Wellington, A Military Life, (2001); Mud, Blood and Poppycock: Britain and the First World War (2003); Loos 1915, The Unwanted Battle (2006) and Blood, Sweat and Arrogance - The Myths of Churchill's War (2006). His television appearances include The Gurkhas, Napoleon's Waterloo, Under Siege and Battlefield Detectives, and he is the presenter of Weapons of the Second World War, a ten-part series (2003); Warships, a three-part series (2003); Daring Raids of the Second World War, a six-part series (2004); Great British Commanders, a six part series (2005) and Mean Machines of War, a seven part series (2006). He is an Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Birmingham, a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, a Member of the British Commission for Military History, a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Farriers.
Major Imogen Corrigan BA (Hons) served for twenty years in the Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC) and the Adjutant General's Corps. She retired from the Army on 31 December 1994 having served in the UK, Germany and Hong Kong. She then expanded her life-long interest in Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Art and Architecture which eventually led to her enrolling at the University of Kent to study for a BA (Hons) in Anglo-Saxon and Medieval History. She graduated in July 2004 with a First. She has conducted White Garment of Churches, Medieval Brittany, Medieval Pilgrimage, The Age of Bede and An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England for Holts Tours. She has lectured extensively on Anglo-Saxon and Medieval subjects and is a NADFAS lecturer. She is shortly to embark on an MPhil from the University of Birmingham.
Nic Fields received his BA Ancient History and PhD Ancient History from the University of Newcastle. He was the Lillian Jeffery Student at the British School at Athens in 1991/92 and 1992/93. With special expertise in the history of Greek and Roman warfare, he has published several articles and monographs on ancient warfare (Nic served as an officer in the Royal Marines before turning to Ancient History). Dr Fields is a former Assistant Director at the British School at Athens. Additionally, in 1993 he organised and led the British School at Athens Summer School, where he taught summer courses for four years. From 1994 to 1998 he was a freelance lecturer and guide. In this capacity, he has worked in Greece, Turkey and Italy for the Smithsonian Institute, and has taught American undergraduates on study abroad programmes at institutions such as Beaver College in Athens and The Athens Centre. Having left Athens, where he was resident for seven years, Nic lectured in Ancient History at the University of Edinburgh.
Delia Gray-Durant is an art historian and has spent long periods in France where she has written the Blue Guides for Paris and South West France. She now lives in Oxford where she is much in demand as a Blue Badge Guide in her home city. She enjoys showing visitors around the city and introducing them to its secret corners, beautiful colleges and wonderful public museums.
Dr Stephen Greep is a respected archaeologist and for many years was the Director the Verulam Museum in St Albans. He has led tours to every major region of the Roman Empire.
Declan Hamilton studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff where he attended the opera course. He later worked at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in a variety of administrative roles. During his years at the Royal Opera House he attended almost every operatic production and heard the most important singers of the day. He has led countless opera holidays around the world and visited New York on many occasions, notably in 1995 when he attended the Gala Evening at the Met to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of James Levine's association with the house. He now works in a fund-raising role at Bristol University.
Trevor Harrison studied Botany at Exeter University where he obtained his degree. It was during this time that he developed a life-long interest in succulents and plants from the southern-hemisphere. Trevor lives in North Norfolk where he runs a highly-regarded plantsman's nursery. He regularly gives lectures to garden societies and plantsmen and enjoys nurturing his own orchid collection.
Colonel Peter Knox OBE was commissioned from RMA Sandhurst into the Royal Welch Fusiliers in 1968 and travelled widely during thirty year career in the Army. A keen student of military history he has research and conducted battlefield tours in Germany, France, The Peninsular and the Crimea. He aims to bring the battlefields alive, using personal accounts of those who fought there. He is a trustee of the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum and Chairman of the Crimean War Research Society.
Keith Miller Keith Miller read History of Art at Trinity College, Cambridge and is equally at home leading tours to the major sites of the ancient world and to the major art galleries around the world. Over the years Keith Miller has developed a particular interest in the art, architecture and history of St Petersburg and has led innumerable tours to that city.
Christopher Monckton was a choral scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford where he studied French literature although it was during his time in Oxford that he developed his skills as a teacher and a performer, both as an organist and a tenor. He spent many years as a choir master at school in the Cote d'Azur where he still lives and regularly gives performances throughout France. Christopher Monckton spends much of the year leading cultural tours covering all subjects from the ancient world to modern art.
Simon Monckton has lived in the Côte d'Azur for many years and has led countless cultural tours around the world. He read Theology at St Chad's College, Durham where he developed his studies of religious architecture from the Romanesque period onwards. He has made a study of the Albigensian Crusades and has visited the Albi region many times.
Michael Orr is a military historian who for many years taught in the War Studies Department at RMA Sandhurst and was a senior lecturer in the British Army's Soviet (later Conflict) Studies Research Centre. He is preparing a study of command in the 55th (West Lancashire) Division in the First World War. He is Secretary General of the British Commission for Military History and is experienced and enthusiastic guide to the battlefields of the Western Front and the Second World War particularly Normandy and the Eastern Front.
Susan Sharpe has for many years been one of the most instantly recognisable voices on BBC Radio 3, presenting programmes in a relaxed but erudite manner. Her music tours for Holts are to two of her favourite destinations, Vienna and Finland. Her German degree and studies of that country's great writers and poets was the starting point for her love of Lieder in particular and chamber music in general. She also has an immense knowledge of the Scandinavian composers and has given many talks on Sibelius's life and works.
Dr Thomas Tuohy read history of art at the Courtauld Institute and obtained his doctorate from the Warburg Institute. His particular passion is for the Italian Renaissance and his book on the history of the d'Este family and their court in Ferrara, published in 1991, was immediately acclaimed as the leading volume on the subject. His next work on the major art collections of the United Kingdom and their subsequent dispersal will be published in 2008. Thomas Tuohy has led countless tours throughout the world.

Holts Art, History and Architecture Tours

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Our Tour Guides