Mary Tiffen

MARY TIFFEN read history at Cambridge University, but after a Ph.D at the London School of Economics, made her main career in examining the social and economic aspects of agricultural change in Africa and the Middle East. She is best known as the leader of a team examining change in Machakos District, Kenya, 1930 to 1990. The resulting book, with its then and now photographs, showed the change from degraded almost treeless land to carefully cultivated terraces as population grew sixfold. It...See more

MARY TIFFEN read history at Cambridge University, but after a Ph.D at the London School of Economics, made her main career in examining the social and economic aspects of agricultural change in Africa and the Middle East. She is best known as the leader of a team examining change in Machakos District, Kenya, 1930 to 1990. The resulting book, with its then and now photographs, showed the change from degraded almost treeless land to carefully cultivated terraces as population grew sixfold. It helped change thinking on the relationship between population growth, poverty, and environmental degradation - see ... In this retirement work she examines her own family background, and found a fascinating story of her connection over three maternal generations with an outstanding Ulster man who was head of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs from 1863 to 1908. Mary Tiffen is married to Dr. Brian Tiffen, and they have two children and five grandchildren. Her main previous books are: Mary Tiffen, The Enterprising Peasant: A Study of Economic Development in Gombe Emirate, North Eastern State, Nigeria, 1900-1968. HMSO, London, 1976. Mary Tiffen, Michael Mortimore. and Frances Gichuki, More People, Less Erosion: Environmental Recovery in Kenya. John Wiley, Chichester, 1994. See less