Studying history

Four history graduates reveal how their degrees led to dream jobs

My career as a public historian began in the final years of my PhD. My supervisor was approached by a publisher to write a series of illustrated books on warships – he was too busy and passed them on to me. They became the Fighting Ships series. This led to an intense period of writing, and I was increasingly approached to appear on TV documentaries. And then came my big break, when I was asked to present a documentary for BBC Four. All I had to do was spend three weeks in Antigua! This became Nelson’s Caribbean Hell-hole, a show about the excavation of a mass grave under a Caribbean sand dune. The success of that led to my first series, Shipwrecks: Britain’s Sunken History, and I haven’t stopped since then – nearly a decade of working as a public historian.

My career has constantly evolved, and I think all historians must learn to pivot and change. I started to focus on naval and military history, before seeing the potential of bringing my approach to other historical themes or questions, such as outlaws, weapons and the Silk Road.

Most people think your identity as a historian is all about your chosen subject – it isn’t; it’s about your approach. I’m an archaeologist as well as a historian, and bring as many creative approaches as I can to anything I’m studying. This has now manifested itself in my latest work: the podcast and live show Histories of the Unexpected. The idea is that everything has a history, even the most unexpected subjects, such as clouds or rubble, and that everything links together in unexpected ways. It has fundamentally transformed the way I think about the past – and the present – and I am absolutely loving it.