I studied Ancient and Modern History and then obtained a Masters degree in Creative Writing, both at the Queen’s College, Oxford. I’ve worked as the private historical researcher for a former politician, and I write for the Times Literary Supplement and other publications. My varied freelance work also includes working as a tour manager on cultural tours, and as a cartoonist at weddings and other events.

PhD supervision 

• Primary Supervisor: Paul Readman, Professor of Modern British History

• Secondary Supervisor: Jon Day, Reader in English and Creative Writing

• PhD working title: Literary Cricket, 1887-1968: Gatekeepers of Englishness and Literary Networking

Research interests

I am interested in social and cultural history – especially the role of networks and their material contexts, as well as the relationship between writers’ lifestyles and their intellectual activities. The focus of my research is on late 19^th-century and 20^th-century British history, especially London. My project also engages with questions of Englishness and identity, and the place of cricket in British culture – seeking to historicise these frequently-mythologised topics.

Thesis

My project explores the significance of ‘literary cricket,’ whereby famous writers – from Arthur Conan Doyle to Michael Morpurgo – played together in literary-themed cricket teams, all drawing on the same network of cricket-mad authors. Membership of literary cricket teams had a significant bearing on the career trajectories and the intellectual outlooks of many of these writers. Literary cricket proved an effective in-group, providing career opportunities for teammates while shutting out other writers, particularly women. Examining the literary cricket tradition in its entirety, my project seeks to provide a fresh way of understanding the London literary scene, and the culture and power structures within which it operated.

Selected publications

Randall O. Cricket, Literary Culture and In-Groups in Early Twentieth-Century Britain. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. Published online 2024:1-25. doi:10.1017/S0080440124000057