My research focuses on regional history as an essential component of national and international narratives and moves from the early modern period back to the medieval and forward to the more recent past. I am particularly interested in politics, identity and culture in the Midlands during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, especially where this links to local beliefs about English history. I often base this research on the Dudley family and William Shakespeare, icons of Warwickshire history who have come to dominate narratives about the county in the past as well as influencing its contemporary identity. I focus on political networks, ideologies of power and material culture and integrate the use of traditional written archives with objects and texts.