I work on the cultural history of 20th century Britain, with a particular interest in gender, sexualities and selfhood. Increasingly my focus is on the politics of cultural life, and the politics and practice of writing cultural history in the here and now. You can listen to me reflecting on these themes.
My last book Prince of Tricksters: The Incredible True Story of Netley Lucas, Gentleman Crook was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2016. My earlier research explored the relationship between the city, social practice and sexual identities–how modern urban culture shaped the ways in which men and women experienced, organised and understood their sexual desires and practices. Part of this was published as Queer London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis, 1918-57 by the University of Chicago Press in 2005. Queer London was awarded the Longman-History Today Book of the Year Prize and the Royal Historical Society’s Whitfield Prize for the best first book on British history.