Jonathan Shepard was Lecturer in History at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of books including The Emergence of Rus (1996) with S. Franklin, editor of The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire (2008) and co-editor of Byzantine Diplomacy (1992) with S. Franklin, Byzantium and the Viking World (2016) with F. Androshchuk and M. White, Imperial Spheres and the Adriatic (2018) with M. Ancic and T. Vedris, and Viking-Age Trade: Silver, Slaves and Gotland (2020) with J. Gruszczynski and M. Jankowiak.