A librarian at the Benedictine abbey of St Aldhelm in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, he was the author of a history of the English church to 1125 (Gesta Pontificum Anglorum). He is best known for his other historical work the Gesta Regum Anglorum (Acts of the English Kings), dealing with the period from Bede to 1120, and the Historia Novella (Modern History), which continues the account to 1142. His work is notable for its attempt to understand and interpret events rather than record them in an uncritical fashion.