Transition Bedford

Contact us if you’d like to contribute to this site and help us gain from a diversity of vantage points. Each blog post includes the views of the author, there is no central transition Bedford “perspective”. There are however some core principles that underpin the Transition concept (see about us) and hence underpin the type of content we promote. See below for some of the authors.

Hannah Thorogood

Hannah Thorogood

Hannah Thorogood; BSc Environmental Studies, MSc Organic Farming & Diploma in Permaculture Design. Hannah is a born & bred Bedfordian, a mother to twin two year old girls and daughter to a local smallholder. Hannah is a permaculturist who first discovered Permaculture in New Zealand in 2002. She and her husband Daniel are self employed, working on a variety of projects such as teaching permaculture and organising national permaculture events, fruit tree pruning, natural fencing, hedgelaying, compost toilet building and sheep shearing. Hannah is a co-founder of HEAP – the East Anglian Permaculture group and ‘Raised Beds’ the Bedfordshire Permaculture Group. Hannah has been an elected member of the Permaculture Council for Europe since 2006 and is on the Permaculture Diploma Development team.

Jane Perrone

Jane Perrone

Jane is gardening editor at the Guardian newspaper (which, as people keep telling her, is the best job in the world). She writes a personal blog athttp://perrone.blogs.com and looks after the Guardian gardening blog (http://guardian.co.uk/gardening-blog). She is the author of The Allotment Keeper’s Handbook but is currently without plot after moving house to a place with a garden that needs a lot of work! She loves composting, mooching around charity shops, foraging and retro china.

Richard Gilliard

Richard Gillard - 1965

Although his degree is in physics, most of his working life has been in software development.  He has no qualifications in climate change or environmental matters.  Richard’s main motivation in joining Transition Bedford is that he is inspired by the community building aspects.  He see’s this as a way of realizing the better world, which 1960s youth culture once seemed to promise, but completely failed to deliver.
“I am not an academic.  I see my involvement with Transition Bedford as being very much a learning exercise and a chance to grow in knowledge and wisdom in a way my previous career could never have supported.”   Richard’s interests are music, cinema, left wing politics, poetry, comparative religion and the internet.

Shane Hughes

Shane Hughes

Shane Hughes; Msc Architecture – Advanced Energy and Environmental Studies. Shane’s a steering group member of Zero Carbon Castle, A founder member of Transition Bedford, Sustainableevent.com, The European Creative Forum and the arts troupe BeThePeace. His commercial work involves being the Director of Carbon Accounting Systems, Partner of Events4change and has included past projects such as producing the Amazonian festival Ecosystem1.0 in partnership with the Amazonian Local Government and the local Greenpeace. He’s an accredited consultant under the Carbon Trust and delivers carbon cutting advice direct to business or working with partners such as Bedfordshire Green Business Network and Thames Renewables. Shane guest lectures at universities throughout the country on sustainability and the events industry and was highly commended in the 2008 Pride of Bedford environment awards for his voluntary work with Zero Carbon Castle. At the age of 17, he left the UK to drift the world without money or direction, facing mysteries and extremities. After 3 years and 25 countries, he arrived in Brazil were he lived, as one of the initiators of the Brazilian Rave movement, for 7 years with Karen, who is now his wife. They returned to the UK to start a family in 2001, which includes there beautiful (frequently naughty) kids Sunny and Wild Lily.

Tony Mitchell

Tony Mitchell

Tony Mitchell has been Chair of the Bedfordshire Climate Change Forum since 2005.  After National Service in the Middle East (1953-5), he taught in a variety of secondary schools (and played some serious cricket) until he became a Senior Lecturer in English at Bedford College in Polhill Avenue, from 1971 until 1987.  He has an honours degree in English, and Masters Degrees in ‘The Teaching of English’ and ‘TV and Film Studies in Education’.  He was the County Councillor for Kingsbrook ward in Bedford between 1989 and 2005.  During his last 5 years he was Chair of the Scrutiny Committee.  His hobbies include cycling and eco-driving (having passed both RosPA and IAM advanced tests), rough walking, writing, reading, the theatre and listening to music.  He also supports the Canaries, the Peacocks and the ‘Addicks – in that order – and likes nothing better than spending time with his family, including 5 grandchildren.

Lynn Serafinn

Lynn Serafinn

Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC is an award-winning transformation coach/teacher, best-selling author, public speaker, personal development trainer, radio host, Founder of the Global Wellness Circle and Chair of Transition Bedford. Originally from the US, but living in Bedford, Bedfordshire, Lynn is co-active leadership graduate and brings with her years of experience in both the educational field and the music industry. She is highly creative and creates a sense of fun and permission to play full-out in all around her. Her “Transformation Trilogy”, a series of 3 workshops which she delivers all over the UK and other countries, is aimed at addressing the “inner transition” of self-awareness, life purpose and the process of change.