The Troy exhibition at the British Museum has been going for a few months now – and if you’re anything like me you’ll have read enough reviews and seen enough photos to make an actual visit seem almost unnecessary. And yet… when the opportunity arose for me to join a private tour this week, I … More Weekend Reading: A Tour of Troy

It’s been a bad week. Not for me, particularly – but all week I’ve been hearing from people who are miserable. For some it’s just the general gloom that January seems to bring with it – but others are dealing with chronic pain, bereavement and other awful things. So I’ve spent the week doling out … More Weekend Reading: The January Blues

There’s been a lot of discussion on Twitter this week about ‘First Generation Classicists’ – mostly referring to people who were the first in their family to go to university (although this definition isn’t agreed on by everyone). I’ve seen some very personal and harrowing stories from people who’ve overcome incredible odds to study Classics. … More Weekend Reading: Wouldn’t it be Loverly?

Normal weekend service will now be resumed… Hope you’ve all had a lovely holiday!   While I’ve mostly been avoiding the internet over Christmas, it’s been difficult to ignore the fuss about Boris Johnson reciting the Iliad from memory.     Actually the trouble was caused not by the recording (which was made quite a … More Weekend Reading: The Quirks of Memory

I’m delighted to announce – for those readers who don’t bother with social media – that I’ve been welcomed into the Lego Classicists Family! It’s been an ambition of mine ever since I first saw Mary Beard’s Lego figure on the BBC.     The Lego minifigure portraits of classicists are created by Liam D. … More New Year, New Me!

Tonight I’m waving goodbye to 2019 with a glass of wine in one hand and a paintbrush in the other. I can’t say I’ve enjoyed 2019. In fact it’s been a Teutoburg-scale disaster of a year for me, and I’m frankly amazed that I’ve survived it. But at Christmas I have a tradition of looking … More Weekend Reading: Goodbye 2019!

I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that it’s been a grim December so far. Between the Higher Education strike which started the month and the General Election which interrupted everybody’s Christmas cheer, the internet has been weighed down by Gloom. But not here. Here in my little corner of the internet … More Weekend Reading: Finding your Happy Thought

Go on… treat yourself! You deserve it, for all the Important Thinking you’ve done this year.     Latin Classroom Stamps I really want some of these (particularly ‘flocci non facio’ which is one of the best Latin expressions); but frustratingly most of my marking is online these days!     2. Hadrian’s Wall snack tray … More Classical Christmas Gifts 2019

One of the things I like most about my preferred branch of Classics (which wavers in its precise categorisation but usually falls somewhere in the domain of textual analysis) is the opportunity it affords to focus on the details. I’ve never been entirely comfortable with the broad sweep of ancient history (that’s why I shout … More Weekend Reading: An Inconvenience of Camels

I was going to write a post this week about Mary Beard’s 100-hour work week and the classical twitterstorm that it set off, sustained of course by the university strike, which has left a lot of overworked people thinking about workloads and lurking on social media because for once they’re not at work. But then … More Weekend Reading: Elizabeth or Elissabeth?