Sarah Whittingham

Dr Sarah Whittingham is an historian who specialises in the social history, architecture and gardens of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Sarah is the expert on the Victorian fern craze. As well as lecturing on the subject (including at literary festivals), she has appeared on BBC radio and television programmes talking about Pteridomania, and has written articles on it for a number of publications, including the Victorian Society's Journal, the National Trust magazine, Country Life, The English Garden and Heritage.

Her book, The Victorian Fern Craze, was published in 2009. The first edition sold out, and it has been reprinted. In February 2012 Frances Lincoln published her major illustrated book, Fern Fever: The Story of Pteridomania, which has received great reviews in the New York Times, Saturday Telegraph, Scotsman magazine, Sunday Times in Ireland, Daily Mail, House & Garden, The English Garden, BBC Gardens Illustrated, The Lady, Cumbria Life, Oxford Times, The World of Interiors, and Country Life, among other publications.

Sarah's other books include Wills Memorial Building (2003), The University of Bristol: A History (2009) and Sir George Oatley: Architect of Bristol (2011), which has been shortlisted for the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion for the best architectural history book in 2012.

She has lectured widely on architectural history and the fern craze for the University of Bristol, the Victorian Society and the Twentieth Century Society, among others. In 2009 she curated the exhibition 'The University of Bristol's Buildings: Past, Present and Future' at the Architecture Centre, Bristol.