Richard Ashbourne Author

Richard Ashbourne is an Assistant National Curator at the National Trust, where he has worked in curatorial, collections and interpretation roles since 2017. His research interests include queer British art and country house collections and interiors, and he has previously written on Baroque portraiture and Edwardian collecting.

Dawn Hoskin is a Cultural Heritage Curator with the National Trust, working across the Midlands and East of England, and is Curatorial Lead for the Trust’s LGBTQ+ Steering Group. She is also a freelance curator and researcher. Dawn is author of The Short Story of Queer Art (2025).

Alan Hollinghurst is the author of seven internationally acclaimed novels: The Swimming-Pool Library, The Folding Star, The Spell, The Line of Beauty (winner of the 2004 Man Booker Prize), The Stranger’s Child, The Sparsholt Affair and, most recently, Our Evenings.

With contributions from 12 further National Trust experts.