David Nash is Professor of History at Oxford Brookes University and has worked extensively in the area of blasphemy, blasphemous libel and religious crime/law for over fifteen years. He is acknowledged as the world expert in this area. He is a panel member of the Centre for Legal Research and Policy Studies (Oxford Brookes University) and a member of the Academic Board of the Galleries of Justice Museum of Law Punishment and Policing (Nottingham). He has given advice to MPs and gave evidence to the recent House of Lords Select Committee on religious offences. He is currently advising the Irish government about their recently enacted blasphemy law. His most recent monograph is entitled Blasphemy in the Christian World - A History (2007) for Oxford University Press which has been widely reviewed and well received. He has also published a textbook on the history of crime in Britain and a monograph on shame in the nineteenth century (both with Anne-Marie Kilday). He has taught aspects of the history of crime and deviance and the history of witchcraft in Britain, Europe and America for eighteen years.