Dr James Aitcheson

Dr James Aitcheson is a researcher working in and between contemporary literature, creative writing, and the history of aviation, astronomy, and space travel. He has been a professional writer since 2010 and is the author of four novels set in the Middle Ages, which have been published in the UK, the US, Germany, and the Czech Republic.

The Harrowing (Heron, 2016) was a Book of the Month in The Times. James's work has also received praise from The Mail on Sunday, BBC History Magazine and Publishers Weekly. His short story, ‘Human, Probably’, about Yuri Gagarin, was shortlisted for the inaugural Edinburgh True Flash Award (2025) and published in the anthology Heartsick and Other Stories.

James completed his PhD in Creative Writing, funded by Midlands3Cities DTP, at the University of Nottingham in 2021. Prior to joining the Leverhulme Centre for Humanity and Space in 2026, James taught Creative Writing at both the University of Nottingham and Sheffield Hallam University. He was an Honorary Visiting Fellow at the University of Nottingham for two years, from 2023 to 2025. He is a Fellow (FHEA) of Advance HE.

James has also worked as a literary consultant and freelance editor for clients in the academic, cultural, and heritage sectors, including: The British Academy; Midlands4Cities DTP; University of Nottingham; Emmanuel College, Cambridge; English Heritage; Brepols Publishers; Curtis Brown Creative; and The Literary Consultancy.

His research explores how space was understood in early medieval Britain and Europe (c. 500–1100) and how it is communicated and represented in contemporary literature (since c. 1990).

James is a Research Associate at the Leverhulme Centre for Humanity and Space (LCHS), a new research hub that aims to further understanding of how humans engage with and experience space. Based at Space Park Leicester, he works in and between the fields of contemporary literature, creative writing, and the history of aviation, astronomy, and space travel.

James's research at the LCHS consists of two main strands. The first strand focusses on early medieval astronomy: how people in early medieval Britain and Europe (c. 500–1100) made sense of the night sky and their place in the universe. How did scholars and wider society interpret celestial phenomena, such as comets, eclipses, aurorae, meteors and supernovae? Interpretations of Space were frequently and passionately contested during this period, and were far more sophisticated than has traditionally been appreciated.

The second strand focusses on space in the contemporary literary imagination (since c. 1990), focussing on literary and commercial fiction and on popular-non-fiction, including histories of spaceflight and astronauts' memoirs. In an age of space exploration characterised more by international co-operation and commercial interests than by superpower rivalry, what sorts of narratives prevail, and which are neglected? Have the sorts of stories we tell about space changed in recent decades?

Being a creative writer as well as a researcher, James is also interested in exploring what challenges novelists face in constructing contemporary and historical fiction set in space, and in developing new creative strategies for communication and representing the experience of space. Recently, his creative output has included space-themed short fiction; his story ‘Human, Probably’, about Yuri Gagarin, was recently shortlisted for the inaugural Edinburgh True Flash Award (2025) and published in the anthology Heartsick and Other Stories.

Novels

 
The Harrowing (London: Heron, 2016).

Knights of the Hawk (London: Preface, 2013).

The Splintered Kingdom (London: Preface, 2012).

Sworn Sword (London: Preface, 2011).
 

Short fiction

 
'Human, Probably', in Heartsick and Other Stories, ed. by Sara Cameron McBean and Claire Rocha, The Edinburgh Anthologies, 2 (Edinburgh: Scottish Arts Trust), pp. 209–10
 

Scholarly publications

 
‘Historical Friction: Constructing Pastness in Fiction Set in Eleventh-Century England’, in Old English Medievalism: Reception and Recreation in the 20th and 21st Centuries, ed. by Rachel Fletcher, Thijs Porck and Oliver M. Traxel (Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer, 2022), pp. 155-70.

‘Writing the Middle Ages: New Approaches in Historical Fiction’, in Middle Ages without Borders: An International Conversation on Medievalism, ed. by Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri, Pierre Savy and Lila Yawn (Rome: École française de Rome, 2021) <https://doi.org/10.4000/books.efr.28132>

PhD Creative Writing, University of Nottingham (2021).

MA Creative Writing, Bath Spa University (2009).

MA (Cantab.) History, University of Cambridge (2006).