Category: Historical research
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Book Contract
It’s been a particularly long week – not really sure why, I just seem to be very tired – but I have had some good news. I seem to have had a contract through for our co-authored Cambridge Elements book on news in early modern Europe. It’s based on the EDPOP panel I gave in…
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XI CIHCE – Scripta in Itinere
I was privileged to be invited to the XI Congreso Internacional de Historia de la Cultura Escrita, held this June in Alcalá de Henares, which will for me be forever remembered as the city of storks – these enormous birds nest atop many of the old buildings around the Calle de Colegios, clacking their beaks…
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Archive work in the British Library – the way I work
At the end of September I went down to London to hear a paper by Chris Marsh at the Royal Historical Society, so I took the opportunity to travel down a bit ahead of time and spend the afternoon in the British Library. This is something I haven’t done for a couple of years, for…
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The way we work
I was I was fascinated by this series of posts on Twitter by Bradley Irish… It’s true, I think. I was reminded of some interviews done by the Marine Lives project last year which looked at the way historians carry out research using electronic databases. I wrote a short blog post at the time,…
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Back to the book
Since my children returned to school the push has been on to complete the final stages of my book manuscript. It’s due to go to the publisher at the end of September, so I’ve been doing all the tedious things that come with completion. Things like making sure all the images that I am using…
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Marine Lives and the way we conduct research
Back at the beginning of July, I chatted via Skype to Colin Greenstreet of the Marine Lives project about how I do my research. It was one of a number of interviews that Colin carried out so that the project leaders could tweak the functionality of their database in order to make it as useful…
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Parr Family History
As we have seen, William Elderton’s emphasis on the exemplary feminine virtues of his heroine in A proper new balad of my ladie marques, Whose death is bewailed To the tune of new lusty gallant is line with the norms of the Renaissance epitaph. But in Elizabeth Parr’s case it is especially interesting. It reflects…
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Beginning Life as an ‘Independent Researcher’
Today I started a new phase of my life: I am officially an independent researcher. It’s not a role I’d have chosen, if I’m honest, and, so far at least, it’s not one I’m particularly enjoying. In fact, after one day on the job, I’m finding it incredibly frustrating. My institutional access ran out last…
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Ballads Across Borders
Over the last few months I have been privileged to give some lectures for Sovereign Education, who provide study days for A-level students. The two most recent lectures were on the subject of ‘the King’s Great Matter’. Sadly, there were no ballads involved, but at least I got to talk about Henry VIII, Catherine of…
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