Acknowledgements
I am hugely grateful to everyone who has helped me complete this book by offering support in any way. Thanks to all those who generously read drafts of this material and provided helpful feedback, especially Corinne Saunders, Carolyne Larrington, Venetia Bridges, Annette Kern-Stähler, Kirsty Bolton, Jane Bonsall, Lucy Brookes, Olivia Colquitt, Hope Doherty-Harrison, Rachel Fennell, Curtis Runstedler, Tess Wingard, and the anonymous reviewers for Boydell & Brewer. My work has been greatly improved by your suggestions and any remaining errors are, of course, my own. Thanks to my patient and encouraging editors, Caroline Palmer and Elizabeth McDonald – working with you has been a pleasure and a privilege. I am especially thankful for Caroline’s detailed attention to the manuscript in its final stages and dedicated work for the open access funding application. I am also grateful to everyone who offered help with book proposals, especially Mary Bateman, Daisy Black, Amy Burge, Amy Louise Morgan, and Laura Varnam. My sincere thanks to the Swiss National Science Foundation, which funded the Open Access publication of this book – I am delighted to have this opportunity to make my work freely available. Further open access funding was provided by the University of Bern and swissuniversities.
Conversations with Corinne Saunders and Elizabeth Archibald shaped this project at an early stage; I am very grateful for their support and encouragement. My colleagues at the University of Bern also offered helpful advice and feedback: particular thanks to Annette Kern-Stähler again for all of your support with this project, and to A. E. Brown, Matthias Berger, and Nicole Nyffenegger for useful discussions. I have been fortunate to work at two wonderful institutions during the course of this project, and I would like to thank everyone in the Department of English Studies at Durham University and the Department of English at the University of Bern, especially the Medieval Studies section. I would also like to thank my students at these institutions, for always keeping me motivated to ask new and exciting questions. Funding from the Northern Bridge Consortium (Arts and Humanities Research Council) enabled me to undertake a PhD; without this support, pursuing an academic career and writing this book would not have been possible.
I have presented work in progress for this project at various conferences. I am especially grateful to the organisers and attendees of the Gender and Medieval Studies conferences from 2017–22, the Medieval Insular Romance conferences in Cardiff 2018 and Durham 2022, and everyone involved with panels on romance at Leeds International Medieval Congress in 2018 and 2019. I have found a welcoming and supportive academic community at these events. In addition to those already mentioned, I would like to thank Lucy Allen-Goss, Anum Dada, Lucy Hinnie, Alicia Spencer-Hall, Lucy Stone, Usha Vishnuvajjala, and Maria Zygogianni for academic kindness, solidarity, and most importantly friendship. Thanks to the #RemoteRetreat community for their support and encouragement while I was writing this book. I am also grateful to the contributors to Reconsidering Consent and Coercion in Medieval Literature, and my wonderful co-editor, Jane Bonsall, for keeping me excited about the topic of medieval consent and for their collegiality and collaborative spirit.
Thanks for practical assistance go to Abbie Garrington and the team at Durham Research Office. Thanks for much-needed distractions from work go to the Psych group chat (AKA Grey College MCR), the Keswick girls’ WhatsApp, and other friends around the world. You know who you are and I value your friendship dearly.
Finally, a huge thanks to the Piercys, Morris/Grange/Moores, and Nansons. To Mum and Dad: thank you for believing in me and cheering me on with whatever I decide to do, while also reminding me that it is okay if it doesn’t work out. This book is dedicated to you in a small token of my gratitude, but I am more grateful than words (even all of these words!) can say. Thanks to my brother, Jon, for your friendship and encouragement. Thanks to Lyra, the best feline companion anyone could ask for. And finally to Ryan, who knows more about Blanchardyn and Eglantine than most people in medieval studies, and whose patience and encouragement I am forever grateful for. Thank you for helping me chase my dreams and for all of our adventures together.