The Idea of Anglo-Saxon England in Middle English Romance (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2005).

As the point of origin, both real and imagined, of English law and group identity, the Anglo-Saxon past was important in the construction of a post-Conquest English society that was both aware of, and placed great stock in, its Anglo-Saxon heritage; yet its depiction in post-Conquest literature has been very little studied. This book examines a wide range of sources [legal and historiographical as well as literary] in order to reveal a 'social construction' of Anglo-Saxon England that held a significant place in the literary and cultural imagination of the post-Conquest English. Using a variety of texts, but the Matter of England romances in particular, the author argues that they show a continued interest in the Anglo-Saxon past, from the localised East Sussex legend of King Alfred that underlies the twelfth-century Proverbs of Alfred, to the institutional interest in the Guy of Warwick narrative exhibited by the community of St. Swithun's Priory in Winchester during the fifteenth century; they are part of a continued cultural remembrance that encompasses chronicles, folk memories, and literature.

Reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement, January 6^th, 2006.

Reviewed in The Medieval Review, February 15^th, 2006.

Reviewed in Review of English Studies 57 (February 2006): 128-30.

Reviewed in Speculum 81.3 (July 2006): 912-13.

The Medieval Quest for Arthur, with Cory J. Rushton (Stroud: Tempus, 2005).

Late Medieval Britain was awash with tangible proof that King Arthur and his knights had once existed.  In England, kings and pilgrims visited the grave of Arthur and Guinevere at Glastonbury Abbey, admired the Round Table hanging in Winchester Castle, and stood awestruck before Arthur's crown and seal in Westminster Abbey.  Richard I and Henry V both claimed to possess the legendary blade Excalibur, while Cambridge dons pointed to ancient charters recording Arthur's founding of their University.  In Wales and Cornwall other Arthurian items could be found, pointing to the traditional Celtic belief that Arthur belonged to those regions.

This book, the first comprehensive account of the wide variety of medieval Arthurian artefacts, exposes them largely as elaborate fakes that were created in order to validate the widespread medieval belief in Arthur.  The authors examine the origins and histories of these Arthurian forgeries, cutting through layers of myth and legend to expose the cultural and political motivations that lie behind their creation.  The stories that emerge are both fascinating and illuminating, exposing as they do the strength and persistence of the remarkable medieval belief in the historical truth of the Arthurian legends.

In Print

‘In his time were gode lawes: Romance, Law, and the Anglo-Saxon Past’, in Corinne Saunders, ed., Cultural Encounters in Medieval English Romance (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2005), pp. 69 - 83.

‘Expectation vs. Experience: Encountering the Saracen Other in Middle English Romance’, in The Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature, 10 (2002): 125 - 40.

‘Some Like it Hot: The Medieval Eroticism of Heat’, in Amanda Hopkins and Cory Rushton, eds., The Erotic in Medieval British Literature (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2007).

‘An Exemplary Life: Guy of Warwick as Medieval culture Hero’, in Rosalind Field and Alison Wiggins, eds., Guy of Warwick: Icon and Ancestor (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2007).

‘The Peace of the Roads: Signifying Royal Power in Medieval Romance’, in Neil Cartlidge, ed., Boundaries in Medieval Romance (Cambridge, D. S. Brewer, 2007).

‘Family, Region, Nation: Bevis of Hampton and English Identity’, in Jennifer Fellows and Ivana Djordjević (eds), A Companion to Bevis of Hampton (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2008).

‘Inscribing Lineage: The Maude Roll as Medieval/Colonial/Postcolonial Artefact’, in Stephanie Hollis and Alexandra Barrett (eds), Migrations: Medieval Manuscripts in New Zealand (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008).