I've been teaching in adult education for all of my professional life

– and I absolutely love it!

Having gained my PhD in Medieval History - ‘The granges and estates of Kirkstall Abbey in the 12th and 13th centuries’ (Leeds) - in 2002, I lectured at university level for seven years, whilst continuing to develop my research and presenting at national and international academic conferences. I realized, though, that I found adult education infinitely more rewarding than academia, and I’ve never looked back!

I began by teaching European medieval history, but soon found that my students have wonderfully wide-ranging interests, which has allowed me to branch out into new subject areas, reflecting my and my students' enthusiasms.

I now teach British, European, and world history from ancient to modern, focussing on cultures, landscape, archaeology, politics, and religion. My students are equally passionate about my wide-ranging interests – regularly contributing to discussions with comments based on places and cultures they have visited and encountered.

Scroll through the images below to get a taster of some of the things I’ve covered.

[Further details (and image credits) are in the relevant places throughout this site]

Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of working with numerous academic and community bodies. It is a continual joy to encounter so many interesting, smart, and engaged people across the sectors.

My first professional experience of the potential for enjoyable and rich conversations when academia, community, and non-professional enthusiasts meet was under the auspices of PLACE (People, Landscape, and Cultural Environment of Yorkshire) Education & Research Centre, near the start of my career - way back in 1998, as I was about to embark on my doctoral research. To this day, the directors and members of PLACE remain unfailingly generous and supportive of my work, and together, we have run numerous courses, field trips, and lectures.

My expertise in local history - both medieval and beyond - has also allowed me to work with many local history groups and societies as a guest speaker. The vibrant network of groups such as the Friends of York Minster, Beverley Civic Society, Harrogate Archaeological Society, and Riccall Historical Society (to name but a few of those with whom I’ve worked) is testament to the enduring fascination of history, and the role it can have in terms of life enrichment and community engagement. I am always eager to meet new groups - do please get in touch if you think my work may be of interest to yours!

I’m proud of my long-standing relationship with the WEA (Workers’ Educational Association) as a tutor. Founded in 1903, this charity continues to pursue its central mission of ‘bringing high-quality, professional education into the heart of communities’. I ran WEA courses from 2003 to 2022, clocking up somewhere in the region of 200 WEA courses and accruing a large cohort of “regular” students along the way!

I started running freelance courses alongside my other tutoring in 2008. I’ve worked with many groups, organizations, and venues - including, for example, Higham Hall in Cockermouth: an independent Education Trust, situated in the most glorious house and grounds, and dedicated to lifelong learning via adult residential courses.

Throughout, I have run freelance courses in the York institution that is Guppy’s Enterprise Club. There are few native York people who haven’t experienced Guppy’s at some point, but to any interested non-Yorkies reading, this page will give you some insight!

I also have a long-standing relationship with two other York institutions, namely the York Mystery Plays and the beautiful hidden medieval gem that is Bedern Hall. My initial association with both was a result of my desire for extra-curricular distraction from my MA studies at the University of York’s Centre for Medieval Studies.

I joined the Lords of Misrule - a drama group, specializing in medieval (and, later, renaissance and early modern) texts and adaptations in original pronunciation - and continued to perform with Lords throughout my doctoral studies and a little beyond. Lords made me, amongst many other things, a crucified Christ and a shepherd in the waggon pageant performances of the York Mystery Plays (in 1998 and 2002 respectively), Cyrus, King of Jerusalem, Oberon, Malvolio, Benedick, and the personification of Pryde, tempting Mary Magdelene at Bedern.*

*[I also, by the way, met my future wife and eventual business manager. For more on this, see here]

When the time came to leave the Lords of Misrule, I, along with three fellow Lords alumni and some carefully selected and/or bribed colleagues and friends, formed Ars Ludendi - a new performance group, specializing in dramatized readings of medieval texts, and using Bedern Hall as our main venue. Given our respective professional and extra-curricular interests, it was but a matter of time before we also developed events with an educational focus. These were a substantial part of our repertoire, with events covering, for example, the York Mystery Plays, medieval Yorkshire, and Georgian Yorkshire - alongside more obviously (ahem) frivolous enterprises, including providing the entertainment at PLACE’s Christmas celebrations!

I no longer do acting per se, but I’ve lost count of the times students have commented on how they enjoy my “performance” in lectures! I guess you can take the drama king out of the performance, but not the performance out of the drama king!*

*[Crocodiles rarely, I assure you, feature in any “performance” these days.]

When I started working in adult education, I immediately knew that it was a ‘home’ which embodies values which I hold dear. It is, alas, a perennially beleaguered sector, and I am fortunate in having established relationships with remarkably vigorous people and organizations, all as eager as I am to inculcate and contribute to a flourishing community.

It is a truism for anyone involved in education to say that they learn as much from their students as their students learn from them, but this is especially true of adult education in general. It is still more true of my students over the years in particular (not that I’m biased, of course…!) - many of whom remain “repeat customers” from my earliest courses, whilst many more have joined via word-of-mouth recommendation and stayed with me. I feel privileged to have been embraced by the lively and friendly lifelong learning community of Yorkshire and, since 2020, far beyond!

I had long planned to focus solely on freelance courses from Spring 2020, but it transpired that that was not necessarily the best time in which to be starting a new business. We are all, of course, still coming to terms with the effects (both personally and on a far broader level) of Covid and its awful corollaries, which will be fruitfully explored by future historians.

But for this particular historian just now, one positive thing to have come out of lockdown is that we found new types of community to help us through difficult times - and more importantly, many of our Denizens have told us that it was an extremely welcome silver lining for them too. People were much more ready to use technology to maintain contact and keep on learning, and found comfort and camaraderie in hitherto-unexpected places. WEA led the way in our sector, by offering its courses online remarkably quickly, and I was honoured to be included in this speedy endeavour to keep people connected. Thus regulars whom I had long known were able to continue the learning that they’d long enjoyed, but it also meant that we all got to meet lovely new people from all over the country (and beyond). We all quickly realized that there were many discrete communities of like-minded people, eager to forge new connections and communities!

Inspired by this, my temporarily-thwarted business venture took an exciting new direction, and I turned my main focus to online courses, available to all, regardless of geographical location. Onwards and upwards!

If you’ve found our online community enjoyable, helpful, and enriching, please rest assured. We shall offer online courses for as long as you’re interested in them!

If you’ve not yet joined us for a course, I hope that this page will have helped you in deciding whether you might want to - you’ll get a top-notch course, and also meet some other lovely people!

For details of our currently-available courses, please see here.