He holds degrees in literature, legal studies, musicology, performance and applied linguistics. His PhD dissertation examined the idea of aesthetic duality in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England. He has presented internationally on a broad range of academic topics and his current research interests range from the interaction of eighteenth-century rhetorical metalanguages with the arts through to critical theory, particularly involved with modern cultural authenticity and the progress of the sign in Baudrillardian terms. He also studied music in Vienna and has been active as a performing musician for many years, playing numerous concerts and appearing on CD, TV and radio.