Professor Paul A. Elliott: Brief Biography and Talks, Workshops and Tours

I am an English Midland-based historian with over thirty years experience working in universities and colleges, doing talks and leading workshops and history and heritage tours. I have a degree in Ancient History and History, a Masters Degree in Roman Studies, PhD in History and Post-Graduate Certificate in Adult Education, and am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Trustee of the Derby Arboretum and member of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site Research and Publications Committee. My research interests include the history of science and medicine, landscape and environmental history, the history of art and creative cultures, local, urban and regional history, historical geography and the history of education. Organisations I have done talks, workshops and tours for include universities, colleges, history, garden history and heritage groups, the U3A, the Historical Association, Derwent Valley Mills WHS, arts centres, theatres, civic societies, book festivals, friends of parks trusts, local government organisations, medical schools, museums, libraries, archives and county record offices.

I have authored around a hundred academic books, journal articles, book chapters, newspaper and magazine pieces, reviews, blogs and other materials, and my books include: The Derby Philosophers: Science and Culture in British Urban Society, 1700-1850 (Manchester; Manchester University Press, 2009/2025); Enlightenment, Modernity and Science: Geographies of Scientific Culture and Improvement in Georgian England (London; Bloomsbury Academic, 2010/2020); (as co-author) The British Arboretum: Trees, Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century (Pittsburgh; University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011/2019); British Urban Trees: a Social and Cultural History c.1800-1914 (Cambridge; Whitehorse Press, 2016); (as co-editor) Nottingham's Victorian Green Spaces (Peregrine Press, 2020); Erasmus Darwin's Gardens: Medicine, Agriculture and the Enlightenment Sciences (London; Boydell Press, 2021/2025); Enlightenment, Sociability and Provincial Culture: Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Wright and Friends (Manchester; Manchester University Press, 2026).

I am very happy to do illustrated talks, tours (including private tours with smaller groups), and workshops (more interactive, using documents). My subjects include the social and cultural history of science and medicine, Enlightenment, landscape and environmental history (including tree cultures, woodland and arboretums), the history of art and creative cultures, local, urban and regional history, historical geography and the history of education. My main expertise is in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Britain, Europe and North America, and I do talks (and tours) on the history of Derby, Nottingham, Lichfield, Buxton, Matlock and Cromford for instance, or focussed upon the subjects of my books or other publications.

Talks and workshops usually last an hour with questions, tours an hour to an hour and a half, but I can adapt sessions to suit your needs. My usual fee is £100 plus reasonable travel expenses outside the Nottingham and Derby vicinity, and accommodation if it is a long way from there. I'm happy to come at late notice if available. Do get in touch if you’d like to discuss anything further!