APPLYING GENDER as a tool of historical analysis to the works of one author has revealed the multiple discourses that helped shape and influence his narrative construction. A gendered reading exhibited much not only about the author's ideas and ideals of masculinity and femininity but also how a gendered language could be used to organise and conceptualise these social relations and differences. These aspects of gender analysis were brought to light through a close reading of Malmesbury's texts in order to establish his ideas. Yet Malmesbury's ideas were not seen in isolation but were read for what they could reveal about the audience(s) for whom he wrote as well as his broader social–cultural environment. These latter ideas were often harder to recover because they related to a range of social ideas and mores present in the author's mind that were current and relevant to the society in which he lived and worked. In part the recovery of these social ideas meant, where possible, attempting to draw on the unconscious awareness and designs of the author. However, the particular circumstances in which an author wrote do often provide clues as to the social ideas and mores that may have been of particular importance to him/her. At a basic level and in relation to Malmesbury, his status as twelfth century Benedictine monk writing after the Norman Conquest of 1066 suggests that themes of monasticism, conquest and a sense of national identity might have been particularly significant for him.