As Sussex was the place of my birth, the history of the two counties has always been a source of fascination to me. I grew up on the edge of the village of Henfield in West Sussex, a mile or so away from the site of the pioneering Violet Nurseries run by a collective of women from 1899-1952.

I work on the following Sussex-related areas of history:

• the author and naturalist Richard Jefferies who lived in Brighton, and died in Goring-by-Sea in 1887

• the life and writings of author and feminist Virginia Woolf, who lived at Rodmell, near Lewes

• The Battle of Hastings in East Sussex

• The Violet Nurseries of Henfield, West Sussex