He is particularly known for his work The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change, 950-1350, which won the
Wolfson History Prize in 1993. He specializes in medieval colonialism, the cult of saints, and England between the 11th century and the 14th century. He gave the 2007
Ford Lectures at the
University of Oxford. He wrote and presented Inside The Medieval Mind, a four-part documentary broadcast by the BBC in 2008 as part of a medieval season.[1]
Trial by fire and water : the medieval judicial ordeal (Oxford, 1986)
(ed. with Angus MacKay) Medieval frontier societies
The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change, 950-1350 (London, 1993)
England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings, (Oxford, 2000)
Medieval and Modern Concepts of Race and Ethnicity (Scotland 2001) Published in 'Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 31:1, Winter 2001
(ed.& tr.) Life and miracles of St Modwenna, (Oxford, 2002,
ISBN978-0198206064)
(ed.& tr.) The miracles of Saint Æbbe of Coldingham and Saint Margaret of Scotland, (Oxford, 2003,
ISBN978-0199259229)
The Hanged Man: A Story of Miracle, Memory and Colonialism in the Middle Ages, (Princeton, 2005,
ISBN978-0691117195)
Gerald of Wales: A Voice of the Middle Ages, (Tempus, 2006,
ISBN978-0752440316) [revised edition of Gerald of Wales, 1146-1223
The Natural and the Supernatural in the Middle Ages (The Wiles Lectures), (Cambridge University Press, 2008,
ISBN978-0521878326)
Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things?: Saints and Worshippers from the Martyrs to the Reformation, (Princeton University Press, 2013,
ISBN978-0691159133)
Blood Royal: Dynastic Politics in Medieval Europe, (Cambridge University Press, 2020,
ISBN978-1-108-49067-2)
The Middle Ages and the Movies: Eight Key Films, (Reaktion Books, 2022,
ISBN178914552X)