He attended Retford Grammar School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he was awarded an Master of Arts in Agriculture. Upon graduation, he worked for Booker McConnell, then took an Master of Science in Tropical Agriculture at Reading University.
He spent his childhood in Rampton, Nottinghamshire. Since then, he has spent most of his working life in Africa, helping the governments of Zambia and principally Zimbabwe in decentralised rural development, for which he was awarded an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the Birthday Honours List of 1996. He owns a house in Harare, but because of recent difficulties in Zimbabwe, he now spends little time in that country.
Instead he acts as a self-employed development consultant on local government, public service reform and capacity building to countries such as Sudan, Ethiopia, Malawi and Nigeria from his base in Nottingham.
Africa faces an unprecedented opportunity A Strategy for Capacity Development for Decentralisation in Malawi CAPACITY Indiana THE MIST Draft Proceedings of a Sub-regional Workshop.. unsaved:///newpage2.htm Capacity Assessment for Decentralisation in Malawi Aid Ineffectiveness in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Problem of Donor.
