Eric Robson
Eric Robson, born 31 December 1946 in Scotland, is a television broadcaster, author and documentary film maker who has lived for most of his life in Cumbria, where he has a sheep farm. For many years he was the main presenter of Brass Tacks.
Early life
He attended Carlisle Grammar School in Carlisle, Cumberland.
Career
Robson started at Border Television (based in Carlisle) in 1966. He is currently co-chairman of Gardeners' Question Time on BBC Radio 4.[1] Previously he contributed to various regional TV series about Alfred Wainwright's walking guides.[2] In 1980 he presented the final episode of the first series of Great Railway Journeys of the World, produced by the BBC. He has been a hobby farmer since 1987, and was also a reporter on the BBC Scotland Landward show. In September 2011 he was accused of a conflict of interest by anti-nuclear protesters opposed to a second generation of nuclear power plants and the possible siting of a high-level waste dump in the Lake District.[3] Robson is the chairman of the Cumbria Tourism organisation but at the same time is a part owner of Osprey Communications, a PR firm that is advisor to the West Cumbria Managing Radioactive Waste Safely Partnership.
Personal life
He is chairman of the Wainwright Society and made a series of TV programmes with Alfred Wainwright in the mid-1980s that looked back over the reclusive writer's life. He lives in Wasdale, where he farms at Crag House Farm and (with his wife) runs a mail order company named after Striding Edge, specialising in DVDs, maps and books about the countryside, particularly that of Cumbria.
He married Mary Armstrong in 1976, but they divorced in 1984. They have a son and daughter. He married Annette Steinhilber in 1988. They have a son and two daughters.
Books
- Co-author 'Great Railway Journeys of the World' (pub. BBC)
- Editor of The Allotment Handbook (Arena Press).
- Author - Outside Broadcaster (Autobiography) 2007 - Pub: Frances Lincoln Ltd
