Eleanor Parker

Even the most obscure topic can be fascinating, and fascination can be found in the most unlikely places.

Modern Britain is dominated economically, culturally and politically by London, its capital city. It was not always that way, as an examination of medieval texts reveals.

In commissioning her biography, Emma, wife to two kings of England, created a subtle yet audacious piece of propaganda, used to maintain her position and secure her reputation.

If you believe the neologism 'post-truth' describes a new phenomenon, think again. Geoffrey Chaucer diagnosed the problem at the end of the 14th century.

The beginning of another year provides Eleanor Parker with an opportunity to reflect on a meditation on time that combines exquisite Old English poetry with early medieval science.  

Eleanor Parker reveals the scholarly network of knowledge that was at the heart of Anglo-Saxon England and the love these scholars had for the pleasures of the written word.

As the search for lost medieval kings continues, interest in them seems stronger than ever. But a warning from the past speaks of their – and our – ruin.

The idea of public history, in which academics seek to address a wider audience, is considered to be a modern one, but, discovers Eleanor Parker, a form of it was practised during the Middle Ages.  

Gaps in our knowledge of the past can be frustrating, but occasional speculation about what we know to be absent is not always a bad thing, suggests Eleanor Parker.  

Eleanor Parker is inspired by a visit to a village church in Oxfordshire that bears witness to one of the most turbulent and transformative periods in English history.