avg_rating: 4.04
name: Gail  Simmons
about: After a peripatetic army childhood, Gail Simmons settled with her family in a Chiltern village. Like most eighteen year-olds, she couldn’t wait to leave home and spread her wings. Decades later – having worked in a Cumbrian castle, listed historic buildings in Warwickshire, led walking groups in Italy and the Middle East, and written for national newspapers – she returned to rediscover the landscape of her youth. Now that the Chilterns are threatened by HS2, she realises how important these modest hills are to her. Gail holds an MA in medieval history and a PhD in creative writing, and teaches travel writing at Bath Spa and Cambridge universities.