Celebrity guests and experts

Horticulturalist Anne Swithinbank’s fascination with plants and nature began at a young age and led her to study for her Kew Diploma in Horticulture. For over 30 years she has been a regular panellist on Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time, and she continues to write for Amateur Gardening magazine.

Oz Clarke is one of the world’s leading wine experts, whose formidable reputation is based on his extensive wine knowledge and abundant enthusiasm. His passion for the subject dates from his student days at Oxford University, where he won tasting competitions at an early age.

Since then his tasting skills have won him an international reputation, and he is acknowledged as having one of the finest palates of anyone writing about wine today. Oz’s frequent television and radio appearances are broadcast around the world. Before wine took over his life in 1984, Oz was a full-time actor and singer, appearing in West End hit shows such as ‘Evita’, ‘Sweeney Todd’ and ‘The Mitford Girls’, and touring with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Oz will entertain you with two on-board talks during your cruise.

After leaving school Wayne went on to become a specialist in the restoration of historic and listed buildings. He has run an art gallery for twenty five years and is an independent consultant.

Though Wayne specialises in Art Deco, Art Nouveau and the Applied Arts he also has a general knowledge with over 35 years’ experience. In 2015 Wayne became a specialist on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow.

One of the things that Wayne would dearly love to find on the Antiques Roadshow would be a bronze panther by the sculptor Rembrant Bugatti.

During your cruise Wayne will give two on-board talks.

Dr Peter Dean qualified in dentistry then medicine and, while a General Practitioner, started working as a Forensic Medical Examiner or ‘Police Surgeon’ with the Metropolitan Police in London.

As his interest in this area grew, he became a coroner after further legal studies, dividing his time between practicing Clinical Forensic Medicine in London for over 25 years and working as a coroner until his retirement in 2018.

He has also advised on the forensic aspects of numerous television crime shows including Silent Witness, Unforgotten, Waking the Dead, Ripper Street, Killing Eve, Midsomer Murders and Van Der Valk.