Hilary Bracegirdle has enjoyed a career as a curator and director in a variety of museums, starting with the V&A and including The National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket and the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro. She has also held several roles at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery (now known as The Box). She has looked after an extraordinary collection for Devon and Cornwall Police, worked as a heritage consultant and in 2015, completed the maximum six-year term as Committee Member, SW Committee for the Heritage Lottery Fund. In the course of her work, Hilary has curated numerous exhibitions in the UK, Germany, the US and Japan. None of them made people quite so joyful as the Beryl Cook exhibition that she developed for Plymouth City Council in 2017. She continues to be in demand for her lively talks about Beryl. Hilary has written numerous reports, options appraisals, strategies and business cases, and has published and edited catalogues, but none of them have been especially amusing. Beryl Cook is her first book.
