Biography

John Hargreaves

John Hargreaves was born in Wakefield and grew up in north Lancashire and the Lake District. He graduated from Clare College, Cambridge, with a degree in natural science and then lived for five years in the United States, where he met and married Nancy Stewart. John and Nancy raised their four children in north Shropshire, where they have built a house and planted a forest garden.

As a freelance specialising in food and country issues, John has written for many national titles including The Guardian, New Statesman, Hemispheres, Convivium, Taste, Ideal Home, Country Living and Parents. For ten years he wrote a gardening column in Here’s Health. He has also published Harvests and Harvesters (Gollancz), Doctor Clegg’s Machete (Tangible Press) and three genre novels (Nexus/Virgin Books).

John taught literacy and maths-for-welders to inmates of North Carolina prisons, and continued part-time teaching at HMP Drake Hall on his return to the UK. He helped women to write, edit and produce The Key – a magazine which won them numerous Koestler Awards (for creative writing in prisons).

For almost a decade John worked in local government public relations – starting as press officer for Shropshire County Council and finishing as this top performing council’s Head of Communications.