Online Lectures

During the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, I gave a number of online lectures which were recorded and subsequently uploaded to YouTube. The links below will take you to videos of these lectures, which I hope that you enjoy. If you would be interested in booking me to give a lecture of your own, either online or in person, please contact me using this form.

Best known as the writer of some of the finest ghost stories ever published, M.R. James was also the foremost medieval scholar of his day and had a strong academic and personal interest in East Anglia’s landscape and history. This lecture, given for the Royal Archaeological Institute on 14th April 2021, examines James’s East Anglian connections, from his childhood in Suffolk to his involvement with excavations at St Edmund’s abbey in Bury, and looks at the influence which the region had on the development of his ghost stories.

This lecture, given for the Abbey of St Edmund Heritage Partnership on 28th November 2020, examines the ways in which antiquaries and archaeologists have approached the study of the abbey since the Dissolution, and reveals what recent archaeological fieldwork has told us about the development of the monastic site. The lecture is one of a series of four lectures about the abbey given to make the millennial anniversary of its foundation which can be viewed here.

This lecture presents an overview of the historical and archaeological evidence for the Viking presence in East Anglia, with an emphasis on the role which Thetford played as a Viking camp in which the Viking army overwintered before defeating Edmund in battle in AD 869. This lecture was given on 30th September 2020 as part of the Brecks Fen Edge & Rivers Landscape Partnership scheme's River Raiders project. A supporting reading list can be downloaded here.

This lecture looks at the evidence for the settlement and integration of the Vikings into East Anglia during the latter part of the Anglo-Saxon period. This includes the evidence offered by the region’s place-names and the material evidence for the adoption of Viking art styles recognised in artefacts from this period. This lecture was given on 21st October 2020 as part of the Brecks Fen Edge & Rivers Landscape Partnership scheme's River Raiders project. A supporting reading list can be downloaded here.

This lecture presents an overview of the many and varied sources of archaeological and historical information which can be accessed online and used to inform research projects. It will focus on East Anglian Anglo-Saxon and Viking resources in particular, but many of the sources presented contain material relevant to all periods across the whole country. This lecture was given on 17th March 2021 as part of the Brecks Fen Edge & Rivers Landscape Partnership scheme's River Raiders project. A supporting reading list can be downloaded here.

From the middle decades of the 9th century until the Norman Conquest, East Anglia was an integral part of the Viking world which spanned the North Sea basin. Drawing on historical sources, archaeological sites, artefacts and place-names, this lecture for the Norfolk Record Office explores the evidence for the Viking presence in East Anglia, from the initial campaign of the Great Heathen Army and the martyrdom of King Edmund, to the subsequent settlement and integration under the Danelaw, and the second wave of raids on the region which took place in the 11th century.