Kathryn

I’ve always been interested in history and my parents made good use of their National Trust membership card when I was growing up. This youthful exposure to country house visiting could have gone either way but I’m pleased to say it has led me to an abiding love of architecture and a lifelong passion for collecting things (my parents loft is still full of the various collections I started as a child, including my tins of novelty erasers which was an Eighties fad that definitely dates me!) My love of the seaside has less obvious roots because my family always preferred going to the beach out of season – even though it was only eight miles from our home in North Devon!

The first seven years of my life were spent in East Anglia and when I went to university in Cambridge it felt like going home. I love the flat fens and was lucky enough to stay in Cambridge to do my PhD on Victorian architect Owen Jones (1809-74), an under-appreciated figure who took a pioneering interest in Islamic design and buildings. In a way the beach hut spotting I began during my PhD years was like building up another collection – I certainly got the same thrill from seeing new huts as a collector does when finding a rare piece of furniture etc. Visiting huts around the country made me realise what an amazing coastline we have in Britain. It also made me want to learn more about seaside history. In any contest I’m always attracted to the underdog and after years of journalists bashing the British seaside I got the overpowering urge to sings its praises! Perhaps that’s also why I’ve spent years researching beach hut history rather than going back to those country houses…

Should I ever have the misfortune to be stuck in a lift I would like the pictures of happy holidaymakers in Avril Lansdell’s Seaside Fashions, 1860-1939 to keep me company. This is an out of print Shire title and a desirable one at that – I look out for it in second hand bookshops but nobody seems to want to give their copy up!

If I inherited a fortune I would move to Great Yarmouth and spend my money restoring some of the wonderful seaside buildings there.