About Me

I am an historian and author. As an undergraduate I studied under the eminent Anglo-Saxon historian, Ann Williams, and I'm an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. I'm also a member of the HWA (Historical Writers Association) and the Society of Authors. 

My passion is for all things Anglo-Saxon, and Mercian in particular. I've written four novels set in Mercia, featuring the lives of Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, King Edgar, King Penda and his children, as well as contributing a Mercian story to a fiction anthology, 1066 Turned Upside Down. My first non-fiction book, Mercia: The Rise and Fall of a Kingdom, was published by Amberley Books in September 2018. My latest non-fiction book, Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England, was published by Pen & Sword Books in June 2020. In 2020 I also contributed a story set in Mercia to the anthology, Betrayal. I've contributed to a new book on English monarchs  published by Hodder and Stoughton in September 2023 and my third full-length nonfiction book, Murder in Anglo-Saxon England: Justice, Wergild, Revenge, will be published by Amberley Books in 2025 and is available for pre-order HERE

I've been an editor for and contributor to the EHFA (English Historical Fiction Authors) blog, and a member of the HNS (Historical Novel Society) 2018 Short Story Competition judging panel. The winner of the New Writer non-fiction prize in 2012, and the recipient of two Mail on Sunday Novel-Writing awards, I was also the winner of the inaugural HWA/Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition in 2017 and am now on the judging panel for that same competition. In 2021 I was shortlisted for the Exeter Prize/Trisha Ashley Short Story Competition.

I was a speaker at the Tamworth Literary Festival in 2018, discussing the life of Æthelflæd, and in 2021 I delivered a paper for the Ask Historians Digital Conference, for the Round Table Panel "All Women Have a Past: Reconstructing Women in the Historical Imagination." I've also given talks for the Garstang Historical Society, and for the Bookflood Festival at Moorforge Viking Settlement, and delivered two talks for Tamworth's prestigious Æthelfest 2023, as well as many online talks and live Q&A sessions. In 2024 I returned to Tamworth to deliver a talk on two allegedly murderous Mercian Queens.

I blog regularly on three sites: Casting Light upon the Shadow, Time Traveller and Reads,Writes,Reviews and I've been a guest on various history podcasts and written for historian Dan Snow's History Hit blog.

In 2024 I joined the judging panel for the HWA Crowns Nonfiction Award.