Born in England in 1970, I lived in Surrey until I moved to Wales in 1989. I graduated from the University of Wales with an M.Phil. in Ancient History in 1997 and moved to Finland.

My interest in languages (I have studied both Ancient Greek and Latin in addition to French,German and Swedish) and cultural history led me to teach at Åbo Akademi (a Swedish-speaking University) for two semesters, and to work as a part-time teacher at the Language Centre at the University of Turku (now the Centre for Language and Communication Studies). I subsequently took up a post in translation at the University of Turku in 2001.

I am married and the father of two small bilingual children.

I am currently
working on my PhD thesis on the translation of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld
novels into Finnish, focusing specifically on the translation of allusions,
cultural references and humour.

I am investigating how cultural references are understood and translated in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, and how readers react to these decisions. I am also interested in how the translators of these novels have gone about identifying cultural references and the methods that they have employed in translating them.

My BA-level teaching responsibilities include:

two compulsory courses for First Years (Basic Studies) i

• Culture Society and Institutions (covering the UK and the USA)
  
• The Basics of Translation (an introduction to translation as a discipline)