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What is Jeff Howell's background?

One myth Jeff Howell wanted to address right from the start was that he is not married to Sarah Lonsdale, although they do share The Property Life section in The Sunday Telegraph

Jeff told us, “When you write a column in a national newspaper, readers often assume that you are employed by the paper, and sit in an office in Fleet Street slaving over a hot typewriter like a scene from “Citizen Kane”. In fact most journalism these days is done by freelancers working from home – much like sub-contractors in the building industry, when you come to think about it.

“I don't know Sarah Lonsdale, but unfortunately the editor has chosen to present our columns side-by-side, even though she has an unquestioning green agenda, and advises readers to buy any new-fangled gadget that has the word “green” or “eco” in the advert. In my opinion, most of this stuff is rubbish, sold by fraudsters. But there's not much I can do about it.” Sadly, some Sunday Telegraph readers seem to think that Sarah and I work as a team, and even e-mail me asking why I have suddenly started recommending condensing boilers and solar panels!”

Moving swiftly on we asked why Jeff Howell does not refer to his qualifications in his writings to show that he has an academic as well as a practical experience and is a Chartered Building Surveyor rather than just a journalist (all due respects to everyone out there who is just a journalist!) Jeff replied, “I prefer to win a debate by being informed, rather than by banging the table or listing a string of letters after my name. In the course of my professional work as a chartered building surveyor and expert witness, I encounter plenty of people who have huge strings of letters after their names, but often no real understanding of their subject. Once you start using academic qualifications as a weapon, I think it's an admission that you've lost the argument. That's why I prefer not to tell people about my academic background.”

Further than that the phrase used in The Sunday Telegraph is Jeff ”the builder who gives it to you straight”. From our discussion this is certainly true, as Jeff spent time as a bricklayer and did start off studying civil engineering at university. This was not all that he expected although it did introduce him to working on building sites and gave him an interest in this area before he switched to a University of Manchester course in Nuclear Engineering and the Philosophy of Science. Amongst other things this introduced him to how to look at things with an open mind to see how they really work or do not work (for all those who have read The Rising Damp Myth book you will know what we mean). As an aside we then discussed how standards have recently plummeted with regard to University degrees and how the best knowledge really is a combination of academic and practical experience.

Who is Thomas Kuhn, author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions?

During the course of our conversation the name Thomas Kuhn came up as someone who had influenced Jeff Howell.

Thomas Kuhn is the author of the book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which poses the question of whether scientists are really seeking after the truth, or rather seeking to fit their results into a pre-conceived framework or “paradigm”. This is a topic that has intrigued Jeff Howell ever since. He explains, “ When Galileo reported that the Earth revolved around the Sun, he was imprisoned, threatened with torture, and forced to retract his claims by the Catholic Church. He had dared to question the accepted scientific theory of the day, which was that the Earth was the centre of the Universe. Scientists have never been free to seek after absolute truth – they don't necessarily face torture these days, but they can lose their jobs or have their funding withdrawn if they insist on disclosing inconvenient truths. When I first published my work questioning the rising damp myth, I had some experience of the way in which vested interests will put pressure on an institution to suppress the truth.

Please see following relevant articles:

Ask Jeff - Biography on Jeff Howell

Jeff Howell, Sustainable housing not so sustainable

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