I’m a writer, historian, & photographer based at the University of Birmingham, although I try to do much of my work on the open ocean in kayaks & other small rowed or paddled boats.

My writing combines sensory experience of the ocean with histories of communities who’ve built their lives on seafaring in small boats. The Frayed Atlantic Edge (Harper Collins, 2019), used a 2,000km journey by kayak to approach Shaetlan, Scots, Gaelic, Irish, Welsh, & Cornish cultures. This book was joint winner of the Highland Book Prize & shortlisted for prizes including The Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing. Afloat (Harper Collins, 2026) includes wider North-Atlantic geographies: Connemara & the Outer Hebrides, Saami Norway, Faroe, Greenland, Newfoundland & the Caribbean Sea.

I’ve written for publications including The Guardian, Big Issue, Scotsman, Times Literary Supplement,& BBC Wildlife Magazine as well as for leading presses & journals such as Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, University of Chicago Press, Past & Present, & The Historical Journal. I’ve particularly relished working with artists, photographers, musicians, & poets, from Norman Ackroyd and Alex Boyd to Tony Iommi, Jamelia, and Signe Lidén and these collaborations have been broadcast on BBC1, BBC2, Smithsonian TV, BBC Radio 3, & BBC Radio 4. Most of all, though, I love being out at sea, among sealife, trying to understand the draw the ocean holds over humans past & present.