I am a writer, critic and academic. I joined King’s in 2014 after completing a DPhil on modernist fiction, neurology and philosophy of mind at St John’s College, Oxford, where I also studied for my undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. The resulting monograph, Novel Sensations: Modernist Fiction and the Problem of Qualia, (EUP, 2020) explores the philosophical problem of qualia in relation to modernist fiction.

I have written three works of creative non-fiction: an investigative memoir, The Pilgrims’ Castle (John Murray, 2025); Cyclogeography (Notting Hill Editions, 2015), about bicycles, landscapes, and my time as a bicycle courier; and Homing (John Murray, 2019), about pigeons, places, and the idea of home. My edited collection of fishing writing, A Twitch Upon the Thread (NHE), was published in 2019.

I am currently writing a book about hoards, hoarding, and modernity.

Research Interests and PhD Supervision

• Anglo-Irish modernism, especially prose fiction
• Philosophical and cultural history of consciousness & the senses
• Urban studies
• Contemporary prose fiction
• Flann O’Brien
• Creative non-fiction
• Place, nature and travel writing

Teaching

As well as my research and teaching within literary modernism, I teach creative writing at King’s. I am keen to hear from potential PhD students working on modernist literature, and creative non-fiction projects. For more details, please see my full research profile.

Expertise and Public Engagement

I am a regular contributor to the London Review of Books, and fiction critic for the Financial Times. I have also written for the New York Review of Books, Bookforum, n+1, the White Review, the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian and Observer, the Telegraph and many more.

I have contributed to programmes on BBC Radio 4 and the World Service and judged literary prizes including the Man Booker Prize (2016) and the Wellcome Book Prize (2019).

I am an occasional pigeon racing correspondent for TalkSport, and an enthusiastic volunteer with Speakers for Schools.

Selected publications

• The Pilgrims’ Castle (John Murray, 2025)
• Novel Sensations: Modernist Fiction and the Problem of Qualia (EUP, 2020)
• Homing (John Murray, 2019)
• A Twitch Upon the Thread: Writers on Fishing (ed.), (Notting Hill Editions, 2019)
• Cyclogeography (Notting Hill Editions, 2015)