Neil Mercer, BSc (Manchester), MA (Cambridge), PhD (Leicester) is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge, where he is also Director of Oracy Cambridge: the Centre for Effective Spoken Communication and a Life Fellow of the college Hughes Hall. Before he joined Cambridge, he was Professor of Language and Communications and Director of the Centre for Language and Communications at the Open University. He grew up in the Lake District and is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Cumbria.