The National Blue Plaques Panel

Professor Ronald Hutton

Interim Panel Chair

Ronald Hutton is the senior Professor of History at the University of Bristol and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries, the Learned Society of Wales, and the British Academy. He is also the Gresham Professor of Divinity at London and sits on the Conservation Committee of Historic England.

He has published 18 books and 83 essays on various subjects, including British history between 1400 and 1700, ancient and modern paganism in Britain, the British ritual year, and the history of witchcraft and magic.

Samira Ahmed

Samira Ahmed is a journalist, broadcaster and writer whose work explores the intersection of popular culture, art, science, politics and social change. She presents the BBC's flagship arts and culture show 'Front Row' on Radio 4 and 'Newswatch' on BBC1.
 
Her recent works include uncovering the earliest complete concert recording of the Beatles in the UK, made at Stowe School in 1963. Her investigation was sparked by spotting a commemorative plaque on the school theatre building.

Samira was named British Broadcasting Press Guild Audio/Radio Presenter of the Year 2020. Her BBC4 documentary series 'Art of Persia' (2020) was the first major series filmed in Iran for 40 years.

She is also on the advisory board of the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford; a trustee of the Centre for Women's Justice and Humanists UK; an Ambassador for the Theatres Trust; sits on the editorial review board of Doctor Who magazine; and an honorary fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford.

Arit Anderson

Arit Anderson is an award-winning garden designer, writer, podcaster and TV presenter.

In her designs her ethos includes simplicity and environmental sensitivity. This was recently demonstrated in the 2024 Peat Free Hampton Show Garden she was commissioned to do for the Royal Horticultural Society.

Working as presenter for Gardeners World and writing for national publications has enabled Arit to publicise issues about the future of gardening in a changing climate and promote solutions to the public.

Arit is a Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute, Trustee for the National Garden Scheme, RHS Ambassador for the Environment and Community, and co-founder of the Sustainable Landscape Foundation.

Sir Peter Bazalgette

Sir Peter Bazalgette is co-chair of the Creative Industries Council. Previously, he led a 2017 independent review into the UK’s creative industries. He also chairs the Council of the Royal College of Art. From 2013 until 2017, he chaired Arts Council England. 

Peter is a Senior Independent Director on the board of Saga plc and sits on the board of the children’s animation company Acamar. He spent many years as a TV producer, devising several internationally successful formats. He became Endemol's chief creative officer and later President of the Royal Television Society. He also chaired ITV from 2016 to 2022, having previously served on the board of Channel 4.

Peter’s book about the business of TV formats, ‘Billion Dollar Game’ (Time Warner), came out in 2005. In 2017, he published ‘The Empathy Instinct’ (John Murray), which explores the power of storytelling in the arts.

Peter has also been a non-executive board member of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and currently chairs the Baillie Gifford Non-Fiction Book Prize Trustees. He also chaired the steam museum, Crossness Engines.

He is currently on the board of the Department for Education and previously performed the same role for DCMS.

Professor Sarah Churchwell

Sarah Churchwell is Professor of American Literature and Chair of Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, where she directs the UK's national festival of the humanities, the Being Human Festival.

She is the author of 'The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Lies America Tells'; 'Behold, America: A History of America First and the American Dream'; 'Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and The Invention of The Great Gatsby'; and 'The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe', which recently inspired a 4-part CNN/BBC documentary narrated by Jessica Chastain.

Sarah comments widely on arts, culture, and politics in print, television, radio, and film. She has judged many literary prizes, including the Booker Prize. She was co-winner of the Eccles British Library Writer's Award in 2015, named by Prospect magazine as one of the world's Top 50 Thinkers in 2020, and longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Journalism in 2021.

Professor Jerome de Groot

Jerome teaches at the University of Manchester as Professor of Literature and Culture.

He has built his career working on Public and Popular history, examining how communities remember and commemorate. He is the author of several books on the subject, including 'Consuming History', and his fellowships have taken him worldwide to the likes of Canberra, Tokyo, Dublin, Uppsala, and Washington, D.C.

In 2016, Jerome led the successful application for Manchester to become a UNESCO City of Literature. He has chaired the Manchester Literature Festival and is currently on the Board of Contact Theatre in Manchester.   

Nafisa El-Turke

Nafisa El-Turke joined the National Blue Plaques Panel after being part of Historic England’s Young Adviser programme.

Nafisa passionately champions diverse perspectives and the role of young people in heritage.

Philip Mould

Philip Mould OBE is a London-based art dealer with a Pall Mall gallery specialising in 500 years of British art. He and his gallery have specialised in innovative exhibitions and published numerous catalogues featuring primary research and academic collaborations as well as sponsoring and supporting museum enterprises.

Philip has written 2 books about art discovery. In addition, he helped formulate and, for the last 13 years, has co-presented BBC1’s award-winning art programme, Fake or Fortune? For over 20 years, Philip was the Official Art Advisor to the House of Commons and the House of Lords and holds honorary doctorates for his contributions to art history from both the University of East Anglia and the University of Plymouth.

Philip is President of Kids in Museums, President and formerly Chairman of Plantlife (the international wild plant conservation charity), an ex-trustee of the English Heritage Foundation and a patron of Fight for Sight.

Professor Alison Oram

Alison is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London. She was Professor of Social and Cultural History at Leeds Beckett University between 2007 and 2019, where she is now Professor Emerita.
 
Her work as a historian has focussed on 'history from below' and on sharing knowledge through education and public engagement. She has published widely on 20th century LGBTQ, lesbian and queer British history and on women's history.
 
Alison is keenly interested in the representation of LGBTQ and women's histories in historic houses and everyday heritage. She led 'Pride of Place: England's LGBTQ Heritage' for Historic England between 2015 and 2016, which produced various publicly available resources, including an online exhibition, a crowd-sourced online map and amended listing descriptions.

She advised the National Trust on their Prejudice and Pride theme in 2017 and co-wrote their LGBTQ guidebook.

Laline Paull

Laline Paull is a British novelist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature whose work has been translated into 26 languages, shortlisted for multiple awards and is currently in adaptation for the stage.

A native Londoner, she read English at Oxford University before working as a screenwriter in Los Angeles and New York. She is part of the Oxford Ministry for the Future, a think-tank combining climate science, economics and the humanities. She is also a member of ‘Hard Art’, Brian Eno’s international art collective. Although she prefers to learn rather than teach, this year she joins the judging panel for the 4thWrite Short Story Prize, sponsored by 4thEstate Books and The Guardian.

Professor Martin Polley

Martin Polley is the Director of the International Centre for Sports History and Culture and Professor of History at De Montfort University, Leicester. He previously held teaching posts at the University of Winchester and the University of Southampton.  
 
His research interests lie in the cultural, social, and political history of sport. His publications include 'Moving the Goalposts: A History of Sport and Society since 1945', 'Sports History: A Practical Guide', and (for English Heritage) 'The British Olympics: Britain's Olympic Heritage 1612-2012'.
 
He is a regular contributor of sporting lives to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and has provided commentary on the history of sport for the BBC and international broadcasters. Martin is a keen runner who competed in the Wenlock Olympian Games and the Cotswold Olimpick Games.

Alom Shaha

Alom Shaha is a renowned science educator and author, acclaimed for making complex scientific ideas accessible and engaging to diverse audiences. He has written books for both adults and children, including ‘How to Find a Rainbow and Why Don’t Things Fall Up?’, and contributed to publications such as ‘The Guardian’ and ‘New Scientist’ on topics ranging from Humanism to science education.

Alom has collaborated with organisations like the Royal Institution and the Institute of Physics to create educational resources used worldwide. Born in Bangladesh and raised in South London, he balances parenting, teaching, and writing while nurturing a passion for recreating the Bangladeshi dishes of his childhood.

Susie Thornberry

Susie is a director, producer and writer. She is currently Artistic Director of Metal Culture, which works to inspire positive social change through art and creativity.

As a writer, Susie was shortlisted for the Wasafiri New Writing Prize.

She is also a Battersea Arts Centre trustee, a Historic England Commissioner and a member of English Heritage's Blue Plaques Panel. She has experience across the arts, including at Artichoke, The Tower of London, The Gate Theatre, and Imperial War Museums, where she was director of public engagement.