So, a bit about me -

Until recently I was head of history at a private school. I'm now a head of RE and involved with teacher training. I frequently find that what I enjoy studying and writing about goes way beyond the needs of the classroom. GCSE and even A level is pretty limiting.

My first job after leaving university was working as a tour guide in London. I'd already got a history degree, largely based on history of crime, so it came quite naturally.

I've also led plenty of tours around Ypres and the Somme, plus giving assemblies (as one student put it - 'you do the ones that aren't boring, sir.' I'll take that. I also do 'outreach' - which is where the schools sends me to feeder schools to demonstrate that History at our establishment isn't boring.

I'm fascinated by history - especially WW1, underwater archaeology, crime and those bits of history we'd rather not talk about too loudly. Crime, Empire, the trade in enslaved peoples, etc etc. And I try to keep things topical, as far as I can.

In terms of availability - I'm happy to be flexible. If I have a projector and Internet access, and I'm available, I'm happy to give a talk. I'm even happy to combine this with a longer trip. The only issue is that as a serving teacher, I can only give talks in the evening, weekends or school holidays.

Also - I've just added York to the list of places I'm happy to give talks. That's because it's my old University town, and I still have family and friends up there. It's not always easy for me to get there because I live in Berkshire so it's not an 'up and back in a day' sort of thing, but I'm happy to talk to a nyone up there who might be interested in hearing one of my talks.