Charles Moseley grew up in Lancashire, and eventually came to teach mediaeval and Renaissance literature in the University of Cambridge. He has also travelled widely in the Polar regions. He is particularly interested in travel and shipping (especially Norse) in the middle ages and early modern period, and in the natural environment of the North, and how man has affected it. He has done expeditionary fieldwork in Spitsbergen, and is a member of the Arctic Club. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and of the English Association, and a member of the Society for Nautical Research.