‘We identify what is good about Britain'

The director-general of the National Trust on how the charity fulfills 21st-century needs

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THIS is an organisation people turn to in times of trouble,’ says Hilary McGrady of the 125-year-old National Trust’s steadiness in periods of political turmoil and financial stalemate. ‘Our numbers tend to go up. Brexit may be slowing everything down, but ours is the sort of brand that identifies what is good about Britain.’

Mrs. McGrady gave the ‘brand’ something of a reboot herself when she became director-general two years ago. ‘The previous three directors had all been English and Oxbridge-educated. I didn’t really fit the bill, but I felt I’d kick myself if I didn’t have a go,’ she says in a gentle Northern Irish accent, which becomes noticeably stronger when she’s fired up about something.

Her background was graphic design and marketing, but then she became the Trust’s regional director for Northern Ireland. ‘I never thought I’d be director —it wasn’t an ambition. I had my dream job in Northern Ireland and I was involved in a big project on the Giant’s Causeway, but then Wales [the regional directorship] became vacant and, once you’ve tried something new and bigger, it’s impossible to go back.’

Northern Ireland is still the family home, however (she has a tiny flat in England for work) and she is ‘devastated’ by the febrile politics of her home country. ‘The history is that one generation always fights with another and the next generation forgets how bad it was,’ she says sorrowfully. ‘Growing up, I and people I know had all sorts of experiences that others can know nothing about. The whole Brexit debate has cracked it all open again. People think it’s just a border, but it’s so much more than that.’