I am a social historian of Anglo-Saxon England. I am particularly interested in the ways in which government, social structure, and political identity shaped one another during the formative period of the English kingdom. I am currently working on a monograph that examines how royal control was established at a local level in new territories (specifically East Anglia) during the tenth and eleventh centuries. My other research interests include Domesday Book, landscape history, and historical geography, particularly in relation to borders and frontiers.

I was drawn into studying the early Middle Ages – always having imagined that I was going to focus on the modern period – by reading W.G. Hoskins’s Making of the English Landscape as a first-year undergraduate. I completed my BA, MSt, and DPhil in History at Oxford, the latter while working in an administrative role. Most recently, I have held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Manchester.

At Pembroke, I teach British and European History c. 300–1100. I have also taught at undergraduate and postgraduate level at the Department for Continuing Education (Oxford Lifelong Learning). 

‘The Status of Thegn in Late Anglo-Saxon England’, Early Medieval Europe, 34/2 (2026), pp. 323–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/emed.70025 

‘The Limits of the Danelaw’, English Historical Review, 140/607 (2025), pp. 1250–89. https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/ceaf048 

‘Independent Peasants on the Eve of the Conquest’, in R. Purkiss and H. Boston (eds), Landscapes and Producers in Medieval England: Essays Presented to Rosamond Faith (Hatfield, 2025), pp. 128–51.

‘Early Royal Rights in the Liberty of St Edmund’, Anglo-Norman Studies, 41 (2019 for 2018), pp. 155–73. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781787444881.010