I work both as an individual author and as a writer and researcher on big projects. I am always happy to be contacted about any proposed work. My main areas of expertise are any aspect of the English language, English literature, myth and legend and anything to do with the middle ages. For a more detailed breakdown see What I Do
What I like to do most as a writer is to research a complex subject, often written in dry academic prose, and turn it into something readily accessible by the general public, without loosing too much of the subtleties.
I have worked on a number of major multi-authored reference works. These have included revisions for the new edition of Brewer’s Dictionary of Phase and Fable; The Encarta Dictionary (etymologies); The Cambridge International Dictionary of English (quotations, words in groups); The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations (research and editing); The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary and The Oxford English Dictionary (historical research).
Earlier works on which I now have the copyright back and would be happy to rework:-
The Guinness Book of British Place Names (written with Fred McDonald)
A Dictionary of Allusions
Scottish First Names
Pretty well everything else I have written since 1988 is still in print in one form or another
Current projects
I am currently looking to place two books.
The first is a book on mythical animals and the myths about real animals, for the earliest times to the present day, dealing with where the stories come from, why they might have arisen and how modern writers have dealt with them. This is something of a hot topic at the moment, and I will be teaching a course in the subject for Oxford University in 2010 - see here for the courses I am teaching this year.
The second is on word coining, showing you how to make up fancy words for plain and as a bonus showing you how to work out the plain meaning of fancy words.
If you are interested in using my skills and knowledge contact me
