Writer, Romanticist, Explorer
I’m a literary scholar and cultural historian specialising in late 18th and early 19th century Britain. A Romanticist by temperament and training, I’m convinced that reading, writing, nature and the arts form the cornerstone of a good life.
Current Research & Writing Project
Fascinated by the human need for beauty and storytelling, my current writing project explores the ways in which women living and working in Britain in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, responded to their everyday lives through words, threads, and sketches. This complex historical record – traditionally overlooked and undervalued – gives us new insights into women’s lives, as well as the social, cultural and economic preoccupations of Georgian Britain.
This project has been funded in part by a British Academy/Leverhulme Research Grant.
Previous Publications & Research Expertise
My wider academic research explores the relationship between literature and the visual arts in Romantic-period Britain more broadly. I have published essays on Jane Austen and the Arts (forthcoming), print shops, Romantic periodicals, the development of the National Gallery in London, Anglo-Italian relations, and illustrations. With Sophie Thomas, I edited The Edinburgh Companion to Romanticism and the Arts (December 2022), which brings together 27 research-led essays to offer a detailed account of the productive, often tense, relationship between the visual and literary arts which redefined culture in the Romantic period. My academic monograph, British Romanticism and the Reception of Italian Old Master Art, 1793–1840 (Ashgate, 2014), examines how Romantic poets, novelists and travel writers were inspired by medieval and Renaissance Italy, its paintings and its culture. It was short-listed for the British Association of Romantic Studies First Book Prize (2015).
Bibliophile
As a writer, reader and enthusiastic (if amateur) crafter, I am interested in the power of the arts to help us make sense of the world around us, both individually and collectively. I have an insatiable curiosity and am a firm believer in the adventure of everyday life. This leads me to immerse myself in new cultures and places, encourages me to slow down as I move through my day, and means that if I’m not reading, crafting, or talking with friends, then you’ll probably find me in the woods or in an art gallery.
A former Senior Lecturer in Nineteenth-century British Literature, I taught literature and writing in the U.K. for over a decade and am a fellow of Advance HE (previously The Higher Education Academy). A fourth-generation Californian, I received my BA in English Literature from the University of Montana and hold an MPhil and PhD from the University of Glasgow. My journal collection continues to grow and there are some who say my personal library may be getting out of hand.
