A space to share medieval history that isn't boring - and is about more than just kings and battles.
A space to share medieval history that isn't boring - and is about more than just kings and battles.
Find out all there is to know about 'Telling Their Tales'
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?
OR are you dipping your toe in the water of history or historical fiction writing?
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.
On Notes I have given myself permission to be a little freer… I find so much value in connecting with other mother writers in particular, so will restack, comment, and like their posts alongside more strictly historical ones. This fills my cup, so that I am able to give creatively to others. I won’t, however, be writing on motherhood. Many of the characters I write about were parents in some form, but I will only write about this within the context of historical lives.
Why Subscribe?
Free subscribers:
Weekly article plus archive of 50+ articles uncovering the untold tales of Anglo-Saxon England, including biographies, book reviews, discussions of historical events, and explorations of poetry
2 monthly group discussions to share our current reads, overturn historical stereotypes, and share your own writing
Paid members:
Paid membership starts from just over £4 per month…
Exclusive twice-monthly instalments of my serialised historical fiction novel, Hild’s Tale, launching November 14th 2024
All instalments of Bertha’s Tale, a novel written on Substack during 2023-2024
20+ short stories and 2 fictional miniseries
Ebook download of my collection of short historical fiction stories, Echoes of Hearth and Hall
Monthly history-focus book club (we’re currently reading Storyland by Amy Jeffs)
Option to ask your questions to other subscribers in the group chat
Monthly writing challenges and/or ask-me-anything (history or history-writing related) chat
Founding members:
Only five spots remaining for 2024 intake!
12-month editing and writing advice, for work undertaken on or off Substack, fiction or non-fiction, with email and DMs support
Please note that while my historical expertise is in early medieval England, I am willing to take on clients whose content falls outside of this time period.
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!