Writer Simon Jenkins to chair National Trust

Maev Kennedy Thursday July 3, 2008 The Guardian Sir Simon Jenkins - whose bestselling books include England's Thousand Best Churches and England's Thousand Best Houses - will now have one of the world's greatest collections of stately homes, castles, churches, farms and follies to play with, as the newly elected chairman of the National Trust. The author, campaigner and Guardian columnist, who claims to have visited every single one of the trust's 300 historic houses and gardens in England and Wales, said: "I am very pleased - the National Trust is one of England's great institutions. I've been a life member for so long I can't actually remember how long, and I've always been intensely interested in everything... [read full story]