My current research spans literature from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries written both in Middle English and Middle Scots, centring on how poets and their audiences understood the formal and linguistic licences of poetry. I have a longstanding research interest in the late medieval poet Thomas Hoccleve, and have recently co-edited a volume of new essays on Hoccleve and his works.
I also write for wider audiences about the history of the English language. I have written on the early life of gibberish for Aeon and for History Today magazine. My first trade non-fiction book, Mother Tongue: The Surprising History of Women’s Words, will be published by Virago Press in the UK in May 2023 and by Viking Press worldwide in August 2023.
I also translate medieval poetry into Modern English in my spare time, and have recently published e-book translations of James I of Scotland’s Kingis Quair, Robert Henryson’s Orpheus and Eurydice and the Middle English romance Sir Orfeo. I have also translated a number of Thomas Hoccleve’s works.
