About

I specialise in eighteenth-century literature and visual culture, with a major focus on the work and reception of Laurence Sterne (1713-1768), author of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759-67), A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1768), sermons, letters, and miscellaneous writings.

I am particularly interested in the adaptation and afterlives that flourished in this period: Sterne’s work inspired a particularly energetic critical and creative reception, with adaptations of his work across genres and media (‘Sterneana’) being a significant component. With Helen Williams (Northumbria University) I’ve co-devised Laurence Sterne and Sterneana, an Open Access dataset hosted by Cambridge Digital Library: it makes digital editions of Sterne’s works published in his lifetime and an extensive collection of Sterneana freely accessible to all.

I continue to publish and present on Sterne’s critical and creative legacies, and I take an active role in the international Sternean scholarly community. I’m an editor ofThe Shandean, a long-running journal dedicated to this author’s life, work, and times.I have spoken about Sterne on BBC Radio 4’s‘In Our Time’hosted by Melvyn Bragg, and on BBC Radio 3’s‘Free Thinking’.

Orcid number: 0000-0003-1574-9682