British author and broadcaster
Vanessa Jane Collingridge
[1]
(born 12 January 1968)
[2]
[3]
is a British
author
and
broadcaster
.
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Youngest of the five children of Gordon Ernest Collingridge (1927-2007)
[4]
and his wife Irene (born Irene Keeping), Collingridge was born and brought up in
Woking
,
Surrey
in England. She read
Geography
at
Hertford College, Oxford
, where she earned a first class
MA
in 1990,
[5]
despite contracting
viral encephalitis
in her second year which caused an almost fatal swelling of her
brain
.
[6]
It was also at Oxford that she met her husband Allan Watt.
[7]
Career
[
edit
]
After graduating, Collingridge moved immediately to a career in television, first as a question checker on game shows
Wheel of Fortune
and
Win, Lose or Draw
, and then for 14 months as a
weathergirl
on
BBC Scotland
.
[6]
In the early to mid-1990s she appeared from time to time on BBC television's
Gardeners' World
. She worked on Spanish public television in 1993 as a co-presenter of "That's English!", an english learning program for spanish people.
[8]
She has since worked as a producer and presenter on all five
British national terrestrial television channels
, as well as
BBC national radio
.
[5]
In 2000 she quit her job as a
television presenter
on
Tonight with Trevor McDonald
to author two
biographies
, one of 18th-century
explorer
James Cook
and one of
Celtic
warrior queen
Boudica
.
[7]
During her research for the former, she discovered she shared ancestry with controversial
Australian
writer and illustrator
George Collingridge
, who asserted in 1895 that Australia was discovered
by the Portuguese
.
[7]
[9]
[10]
She has described her very early interest in
feminism
in the introduction to her book on Boudica in 2005: "What started as a strong-willed desire for independence became a fully-fledged,
bra-burning
(if only I had been old enough to wear one) mentality... Certainly, I cannot remember a time when I wasn't acutely aware of the inherently political nature of woman's position in society and ? much to my father's disgust and my now extreme embarrassment ? by the grand old age of twelve, I would proudly read
Cosmopolitan
magazine and proclaim myself a feminist!"
[11]
She returned to television in 2007 as writer and narrator of the four-part miniseries
Captain Cook: Obsession and Discovery.
[12]
Family life
[
edit
]
Collingridge has lived in
Scotland
since 1989, and resides in a converted
farmhouse
on the shore of
Castle Semple Loch
near
Lochwinnoch
with her husband Alan Watt, and sons Archie, Angus, Finn and Dougal.
[6]
[7]
[13]
In 2017 she completed her
PhD
in historical
cartography
at the
University of Glasgow
, having worked as a broadcaster for
BBC Radio Scotland
's
Buried Treasure
and
BBC Radio 4
's
Making History
whilst studying.
[1]
[5]
[6]
[14]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Collingridge, Vanessa Jane (2017).
"Mapping myths: the fantastic geography of the Great Southern Continent, 1760-1777. PhD thesis"
(PDF)
. University of Glasgow.
- ^
"DR VANESSA JANE COLLINGRIDGE director information. Free director information. Director id 902944190"
.
- ^
"Vanessa Jane COLLINGRIDGE ? Personal Appointments (Free information from Companies House)"
.
- ^
"Gordon Ernest Collingridge"
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Biography at Take 3 Management"
. Archived from
the original
on 30 December 2006
. Retrieved
19 November
2006
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"You can't pigeonhole me ... because of my magpie brain"
Archived
30 September 2007 at the
Wayback Machine
, interview with Stephen Phelan,
Sunday Herald
- ^
a
b
c
d
"Fancy meeting you here ..."
,
The Scotsman
, 4 March 2002
- ^
"That's English! [Previous version] ? YouTube"
. Retrieved
5 August
2023
– via YouTube.
- ^
Video clip of Collingridge describing her biography of James Cook
(RealPlayer video)
- ^
"The captain and the deflater"
, Sara Wheeler,
The Spectator
, 9 March 2002
- ^
p.6,
Boudica
(2005), Ebury Press,
ISBN
0-09-189819-6
- ^
Captain Cook: Obsession and Discovery.
Archived
20 July 2011 at the
Wayback Machine
Film Australia, 2007
- ^
"Weather girl and now author Vanessa Collingridge at home in Lochwinnoch"
Archived
27 September 2007 at the
Wayback Machine
, Stephenpics.co.uk, 2002
- ^
"PhD candidates"
, Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
Academics
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|