Supervision areas:

Historical novels, public history, popular history, history on television, historical film, museum and heritage studies, the ethics of historical representation, re-enactment studies, computer games, genetics, biotechnology, race and history, DNA, bioethics, representations of queer and trans histories, ethics, anachronism.

John Milton, the period 1640-70, Andrew Marvell, John Dryden, translation, pedagogy, Royalism, Cavalier poetry.

Please get in touch if you are interested in postgraduate study in any of the areas mentioned above.

I have three main areas of interest: Public History; the Historical Novel; Literature and culture of the English Revolution (c.1640-1660).

My primary research interest is in public and popular history which includes my work on the historical novel. At present my public history work is focusing on DNA.

I have been working on genetics and culture for about 10 years. I recently published Double Helix History which looks at the relationship between genetics/ DNA and History since 2000. I am co-author of Race, Genetics, History, a study of the impacts of genetic science and race in museums and heritage sites. 

A second edition of The Historical Novel (Routledge New Critical Idiom series 2009) will be published in 2026.

Consuming History (2008; 2nd ed. 2016; 3rd ed forthcoming 2027) and Remaking History (2015) both concern the ways in which contemporary popular culture engages with history. There are chapters on historical film, television (documentary and drama), museums, computer games, re-enactment and novel writing. I discuss writers like Hilary Mantel, David Peace, Thomas Pynchon, Ali Smith, and Sarah Waters. I talk about historical films from 12 Years a Slave to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, to the work of Quentin Tarantino.

I would be happy to supervise on any of these topics, or:

• history and ethics
• historiography
• games and culture
• film, tv and online culture
• re-enactment
• queer history
• History and DNA
• Popular history and race.

I also work on early modern writing, particularly relating to sexuality, gender, politics, prison, translation and poetics. My monograph, Royalist Identities (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), considered the legal, social and cultural pressures attendant upon supporters of the king during the 1640s. I would be happy to supervise in the following areas:

• Royalism
• The court, 1642-60
• Restoration politics
• John Milton
• Translation, 1630-80
• Prison Writing
• Premodern sexuality
• Early modern pedagogy and gender
• Royalist women's autobiography
• Political and theological radicalism
• Literary experiment

I work on the representation of history in contemporary popular film, television, drama and games; I also work on the literature of the period 1640-1660.