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Hello! I'm Dr Christopher Monk, but please call me Chris.

I'm a historical consultant specialising in the culture, texts, and everyday life of medieval England. I have a significant portfolio of academic publications, including an ebook, journal articles, and multiple book chapters. I'm presently completing a study about the cookery book of Richard II.

The focus of what I do lies in the heritage sector and with talented creatives, helping them to bring their wonderful ideas to life.

Recent work with Rochester Cathedral, composer Clive Nolan, and the video games company Salix Games are just a few of the successful and fruitful collaborations I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.

Particular areas of expertise include:

Medieval food and cookery

Old English (Anglo-Saxon) language, literature and art

Medieval manuscripts

Monastic life in Anglo-Saxon England

Law and order in Early medieval England

Marriage and sexual mores in the Middle Ages

Medieval monsters

A significant part of my work involves translation of Old English (Anglo-Saxon), Middle English, and medieval Latin texts. I also work on Anglo-Norman and Old French texts.

A particular specialism in recent collaborations has been my translation of modern English into Old English. Creating Old English spells for a video game and writing Old English lyrics for a prog rock oratorio have been some of the most exciting, creative work I've experienced.

To learn more about some of my recent work, please click on the Projects & Publications tab in the menu.

In the meantime, check out some of the feedback I've had from those I've worked with.

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Here's some of the feedback I've received:

"I wanted to start building the chorus parts of this album, which in many ways are the most important element. My aim was to build up maybe a choir of about 100 voices. Well... I have in some songs about 140 voices singing in Anglo-Saxon, translated by our splendid medieval guru, Christopher Monk!"
Clive Nolan, composer, musician, producer

"Our company, Fuzzy Duck Creative, was commissioned to create a number of touch-screen interactives explaining Textus Roffensis for Rochester Cathedral.  Chris was not only modest but an extremely thorough expert on how best to interpret this text for a modern and lay audience, and also recorded a friendly but authoritative voiceover for the interactives that exactly met the client's brief." 
Phil Hewitt, Director, Fuzzy Duck Creative Ltd.​

"My Company Salix Games is making a video game that blends fantasy elements around real world events. We hired Chris to advise us on the early medieval period, so that we could establish a grounding for Arthurian Legend in 5th century Wales. This ranged from what these characters would have potentially worn to translations of spells into Old English.
 
Not only is he quick, but Christopher’s research is extensive and always goes above and beyond what we expect, often providing great ideas for us to enhance our characters and story by weaving in a layer of historical authenticity. To top it off he is an absolute joy to work with!"

Jessica Saunders, Director at Salix Games

​​"Christopher Monk was an excellent speaker, down to earth and approachable. He gave the great impression that he wanted to share his knowledge with us all. Great!"

​"The use of animated graphics to highlight individual words and sentences, and to see their modern English equivalent, made it easy to follow Dr Monk's exposition." 

​"The sessions did meet my expectations; I've been fortunate enough to see Chris speak before so I know he is very good."

"Have more visits from Dr Monk."

"I do hope Dr Monk can be persuaded to come back often, and perhaps show us how to make pottage next time!"

​Volunteers, Rochester Cathedral

​"We were very pleased with the consultation services provided by Chris for our children's book, You Wouldn't Want To Be An Anglo-Saxon Peasant. He provided us with thorough, helpful suggestions about how we could improve the historical accuracy of our text and illustrations, whilst always keeping in mind the target audience and the aims of the project. Throughout the process, he remained enthusiastic, punctual, and highly capable."
Nick Price, Salariya Book Company

For more information on the projects I've been involved with, go to: Projects & Publications