Today, I am very pleased. Yesterday I received the proofs of my article on John Roberts. I started work on this as a palaeography training project before I began my PhD in 2011, so it’s been a long time coming. His first mention on my blog, I think, was back in 2012. He (which is somehow how I think of the article) has been through so many iterations that it’s hard to remember how he started out. Over the years it has been submitted to and rejected by more journals than I care to think about – given the timespan, I have honestly lost count. One major journal sat on him for more than 3 years before finally coming back with a rejection. Each time, the feedback has improved the piece, so I would like to thank the many, many reviewers who must have read him over the years. But now he has found a home in the next issue of Law, Crime and History, and I think that this really was his natural home all along.

Over the years, the article has moved from being about the persecution of Catholics in James I’s London, through an analysis of social networks in London to looking at the development of a modern concept of public office and malfeasance. Along the way, I’ve uncovered a new date when the Catholic martyr John Roberts was incarcerated in the Gatehouse Prison in London.