Who's who

Matt James is a garden designer, writer and lecturer on the BA (Hons) Garden, Spatial and Interior Design course here at University College, Falmouth.

Matt trained at Merrist Wood College in Guildford and was awarded his degree at Writtle College, a partner institution of the University of Essex.

Today Matt is best known as the face of C4’s The City Gardener which aired on our screens from 2002 to 2005. He has also spent a year in the USA filming two series about urban garden design, and authored a documentary for Channel 4’s ‘The Insider’ programme about the unacceptable loss of green space in our towns and cities.

Matt has won a number of awards for his work, including Londoner of the Year: Environment and Regeneration. He has also won two awards for garden designs in California at the CCLA Annual State-wide Trophy Awards – 1st place for ‘A Modern Mediterranean Retreat’ in 2006, and in 2007 an Outstanding Achievement Award for ‘A Contemporary Slice of the Tropics’ in Venice, CA.

Matt is the author of three books including the City Garden Bible and has written regularly for numerous publications about garden design and gardening including The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times, Real Homes, GardenLife and The Garden. He is currently the gardening columnist for the News of the World.

Matt runs a garden design practice which specialises in small space design and undertakes projects throughout the UK.