James has an established and successful lecturing career speaking to gardening and horticultural groups and at Royal Horticultural Society shows and events on a number of gardening topics. He has been a keen collector of Moorcroft pottery for over 30 years and has an extensive collection. These are primarily examples of William Moorcroft’s early work dating back to 1897 and he takes some of these pieces with him to illustrate his talks. He has been a member of the Moorcroft Collectors’ Club for a number of years and is fortunate to have two former employees of the pottery amongst his friends. He has visited the pottery on a number of occasions and has an in depth knowledge of past and present processes of manufacture. He is in regular contact with Moorcroft and has generously been given access to their archive material. Wherever possible he takes a selection of Moorcroft pieces to display. A recent lecture was attended by a former member of the board of directors who told James that even they had learned some new information about William Moorcroft.