No permission needed to geek out here!
THE space to indulge in all things European medieval history.
Are you interested in medieval history but…
frustrated by an overwhelming focus on kings and battles?
bored by matter-of-fact presentations of the past?
missing the human connection element to studying our ancestors?
If so, then this is the place for you!
Let me share why I’d love to welcome you into the Telling Their Tales community…
What’s unique about Telling Their Tales compared with other history pages?
I long to give a voice back to those who have gone before us, recognising that they had loves and losses, joys and hurts, just like you and me. They had real, textured lives: they too grumbled that their kids didn’t leave the house on time; that their husbands burnt the dinner to the pan (sorry husbands: mine is great but he does tend to do this!); that they find their baby’s spit up on all their clothes. They had crushes and felt their cheeks warm when they walked by. They were disappointed when a work opportunity didn’t materialise.
Above all, these were individuals, people, whose lives had dignity, value, and worth.
Yet the vast majority have been forgotten, with not even their names passed down through the generations. When scant details do survive, these rarely flesh out the colour of these lives, recording only bare facts (birth, death, marriage, for example) or fleeting moments when they crossed paths with someone or something more important.
I tell these stories: the ones left out of the popular history books; the ones that readers really want to hear about.
What can you expect from me?
I hope to create simple, beautiful, and joyful writing that gives a voice back to the men and women of the past.
For published articles, I will stay in this lane: history writing is my wheelhouse and while my short stories and serialised novel will stray into creative writing, they too are ultimately historical in nature, using real lives as their starting point. My great passion is early medieval Europe so most of my writing will be set in this time and place.
Why Subscribe?
As a free subscriber, you’ll access…
Weekly newsletter exploring the stories less commonly told about medieval history
If you upgrade to a paid membership (no pressure to do so here! Just letting you know), you’ll unlock:
Serialised historical fiction novel & ebook download
Video podcast mythbusting common misconceptions
Occasional deep dives & downloadable resources
Who am I?
I’m currently a full-time stay-at-home-mum, having welcomed our little one in May 2023, and I pursue my love for reading and writing history in the edges of motherhood (read: during nap times). Motherhood has changed me entirely in more ways than I have words to describe here, but one of the best is that I’ve been able to spend more time reading and writing than I could when I worked full time.
I studied History at Oxford (BA) and Cambridge (MSt), but had a career in primary school teaching for nearly a decade. I was passionate about developing a love of reading, including supporting our earliest learners with their first forays into the world of stories. I guess this transfers over to this space in that I would love you to find as much joy in reading my words as I have in reading those of others.
I’m currently studying for a DPhil in Archaeology at Oxford, researching the role of women in the conversion of Anglo-Saxon England and Merovingian Francia.
This is wonderful ❤️
This is awesome!