What is impact and how can we do impactful research? That’s the topic of this SRS Public Engagement Toolbox conversation with Dr Sara Read and Dr Catie Gill, both of Loughborough University, whose work with the National Civil War Centre in Newark was the basis for an Impact Case Study in REF 2021. John Gallagher asks Drs Gill and Read about their work with curators, collections, and communities, as well as exploring the events and content they’ve used to engage new audiences (like this video on fake news about ‘cancelling’ Christmas in seventeenth-century England). We also talk about the relationship between research, impact, and creative outputs – from working with a local writers’ group to publishing a research-inspired novel. And we talk about the work of writing an impact case study for the REF – challenges, benefits, and top tips for early modernists thinking about impact.