I am a Byzantine art historian with a fascination for mosaics and a trainspotter mentality – I have a bucket list of medieval mosaics that I’d like to see. I’ve written on mosaics in the medieval world, on light and colour, on the relationships between art and texts and on gender. My motto is ‘I have no particular talent; I am merely extremely inquisitive’. At the moment, I am particularly interested in two issues: what makes a good mosaic; and what were mosaics for?