My research interests are William Golding's fiction, war poetry, nature writing, and archives. I have ongoing projects in each of these areas.

My latest book, co-authored with Fiona Mathews and shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize, is Black Ops & Beaver Bombing: Adventures with Britain's Wild Mammals (Oneworld, 2023). Part natural history, part travel writing, and part bad jokes (what exactly did the beaver say to the tree?), the book criss-crosses Britain in search of eight mammal species that are threatened with extinction. The animals are the heroes. There is no spiritual healing and no self-discovery.

My anthology Poetry of the Second World War, a kind of sequel to Poetry of the First World War (2014), is published by Oxford World's Classics in October 2024. Let's hope it's the last in the series.

My edition of the letters between William Golding and his publisher is forthcoming from Faber in November 2025. 

Biography:

I was born in Plymouth in 1970. At Oxford I completed my BA (1991) and D.Phil (1994). I spent a year there as lecturer before taking up a research post in Newcastle. Two years after that, I accepted my first permanent position at Bristol. I returned to Devon as Professor of English Literature at the University of Exeter in 2006, and served as Head of Department from 2007 to 2013.

In no particular order, my passions are poetry, wildlife conservation, running, William Golding's fiction, and Plymouth Argyle.