Classics
From Octavian To Augustus
Jochen Bleichen’s biography of the Emperor is monumental but highly readable
Snakes In The Grass
‘Trigger warnings are not merely tools for censoring febrile material for the few, but a complaint about the dominance of Western thought’
The Pagan Problem In Western Thought
“By all means, let the wicked fry in Hell—but why should they find themselves frying alongside innocent and virtuous pagans?”
Cento Ground
The cento is a sophisticated and demanding poetic form — and best suited to schoolboyish ends
A Journey Back To The Golden Age Of Bronze
A remarkable Florentine exhibition has brought together many of the few surviving Hellenistic sculptures
Discover Aeschylus With Virginia Woolf
The writer’s notes on Greek tragedy are as stimulating as her novels — so she’ll be Daisy Dunn’s guide at a feast of ancient drama in London this summer
An Odyssey To Athens
Moving to the city where democracy began
Double Trouble In Thebes
Two productions of Antigone show the elasticity of one of the most challenging plays in the canon
The Case For The Classics
Three books offer fresh and enchanting views on the ancient past and how it can still live
Carpe Vinum
Horace, the great poet of wine
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal