About the Author

Philippa Semper (foreword) is a medievalist at the University of Birmingham, where she lectures on Old and Middle English Literature and modern fantasy. She has published on texts from the Anglo-Saxon period to the twenty-first century, and is currently writing about Neil Gaiman and Lord Dunsany. She has been a speaker at Hay Festival and given papers and keynote lectures at a range of conferences on fantasy. She particularly enjoys introducing students to Beowulf, chivalric romance, and J.R.R. Tolkien.