Philip is married with two children and lives in the heart of Robin Hood country in England. He has a Masters Degree in Strategic Marketing and 9 diploma’s ranging from Personnel Management through to Holistic Medicine and the craft of Etymology. Although he has been asked on numerous occasions to become “a member” of several institutions, Philip has strictly refused on the grounds of independence – seeing membership of certain organisations as being overtly influential on his research and understanding of the truths of mankind. Philip believes that some authors/researchers have been lead into membership of institutions or “societies” and are therefore of questionable authority. His background in the history of propaganda and the ancient and ongoing manipulation of mankind tell him that such things do indeed occur. He has however joined (upon being requested) a couple of what are known as secret societies in-order to find out what was happening inside – the conclusions of these journalistic forays appear in his books and he is no longer a member of any organisation.

Before retiring to dedicate his time to researching and writing, Philip was a Marketing Director and owner of a company in the UK. Part of this role included giving lectures on the art and history of marketing and propaganda to various organisations including certain government bodies and companies.

Philip began his writing career with a book entitled Proof? Does God Exist?: Is There Any Evidence for the Existence of God? Published in 2002 and followed this up with his best selling The Shining Ones: The World's Most Powerful Secret Society Revealed, which launched in the UK and immediately outsold.

In his book The Shining Ones he set about proving a theory regarding an ancient priesthood called The Shining Ones who developed into the worlds' most powerful and ancient secret society. Philip uses history, etymology, archaeology, mythology, symbolism and his own expertise of propaganda to prove his theories. During the launch he appeared on over 200 radio programmes, tv and in the general media during this launch. Gardiner was called by several of these articles "the next Graham Hancock."

The next stage in his work was The Serpent Grail: The Truth Behind the Holy Grail, the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life (Watkins Publishing released The Serpent Grail worldwide in September 2005), co-authored with Gary Osborn, which delves back in time to actually discover the most remarkable of secrets - the Holy Grail, the Philosophers Stone and the Elixir of life - as well as uncovering a worldwide cult that spawned the whole thing. One television company called the book "The most important story on the planet."