About Stephen Ben Cox

Brought up in rural England he took a 4-year honours degree at university, taught at a leading British public school then lived in Eastern Europe for a year (during the Communist dictatorships of the time). Back in the UK he taught in secondary schools and further education colleges, then took his Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE: state teaching qualification) at University and then was the production manager for a small independent British film.

For several years he was an interior designer/ decorator/restorer. (Victorian & Georgian houses) in Devon, Hampshire, Berkshire, Shropshire, Oxfordshire, London. 

As a professional artist creating sculpture, installations, reliefs, paintings,  and watercolour miniatures he worked from a large rural studio for several years, and had many one-man exhibitions all over England, Wales and Scotland. He took on artist apprentices; and also organised a scheme to arrange for artists to visit schools. He delivered several lectures about his art.

Over the years he has written extensively in the fields of history, wildlife, heritage, horticulture prehistoric architecture, conservation, well-being, mythology. This includes over 600 articles. 

In international education he devised and ran: distance learning courses; heritage lectures;  placements for students from across Europe; cultural tours; ancient sites visits; and many group heritage adventure expeditions to remote wild landscapes. He directed English as a Foreign Language summer centres. In 2002 & 2003 he held lecture tours to the Netherlands and Belgium talking about his philosophy and wild landscapes. A film was made about a 1 week Dutch group course he organised.

He is a member of ALCS (Authors Licensing & Copyright Society). And DACS (Design & Artists Copyright Society) and was a director/member of the Board of Management. 

He founded and ran the local Neighbourhood Watch schemes (2002-2021). He was a Police Custody Visitor for 10 years. He wrote the initial environmental policies for the local Neighbourhood Plan.

He is occassionally writing memoirs of 1950's rural life. A major book on life coaching/self-help: "The Keys of Life" is almost finished but suspended. Three Ebooks are due for publication in 2025: 'The Water Gardener', 'The Happy Gardener' and 'The Well-Being Gardener'.

He has started two others: 'The Healthy Gardener' and 'The Spiritual Gardener'.

He composes the text and narrates the audio for the Trust videos on its YouTube channel conjuction with various student editors from the UK and Germany .

He retired in 2012 and moved to Wiltshire. But then ended up working full time to develop an unusual garden from a small field  and  founded a registered charity which he runs and for which he now teaches.