On Wednesday it’s time for the joyful annual celebration of worldwide classical silliness that is International Lego Classicism Day, across social media.     So I’m hard at work producing a Lego-South Shields epic of my own, which I’m inclined to entitle ‘The Barateid’. Our hero is Barates, an intrepid travelling salesman from Palmyra, crossing … More Weekend Reading: The Barateid

This week it was my son’s parent’s evening: always a nervous time for the parent of a trainee tyrant. It started me thinking: what would the school reports of the ancient world say …?   Augustus: Wrote a lovely story recently, called ‘Things Wot I Have Done’. Hadrian: Happiest in the construction area. Tarpeia: Shouldn’t … More Weekend Reading: School Reports

Well, it’s snowing here in South Shields. Not as much as it is in some parts of the world, true: but enough for me to wonder whether I really like my child enough to walk up the hill and pick him up from school. [Update: I decided that I did – but it was close.] … More Weekend Reading: A Four-Tunic Day

Recently I’ve been reading and watching the Harry Potter series. Actually, that’s the understatement of the year. If you’ve ever lived with an obsessive seven-year-old, you’ll know what I mean. The house is littered with wands, cuddly owls and Hogwarts scarves; I’ve had to go through the process of determining my school house (Ravenclaw, if you’re interested), … More Classical Pottering

I couldn’t help noticing that a lot of this week’s news stories have been referring to a ‘new Indiana Jones’. Strangely, though, they’re not all talking about the same person. This week we have a Scottish Indiana Jones, a Dutch Indiana Jones and an AI Indiana Jones, all in the space of a few days. … More Weekend Reading: Too Much Indiana Jones?

This week I’ve been telling Homeric bedtime stories to my little boy, and the strain is starting to get to me. Bedtime for us has always had a certain Homeric feel – and not just because it takes a very long time. My son has disapproved, ever since he was a baby, of people reading … More Weekend Reading: Apologies to Homer

Classical Studies Support is back from a Christmas break – which somehow managed to be more tiring than work – and resuming the regular Weekend Reading schedule. This week there’s been a great deal of drama and in-fighting, combined with a large helping of concern over the future of Classics. Who needs Eastenders when you have … More Weekend Reading: Conference and Controversy

    If someone had said to me, when I enrolled on my first Open University module eight years ago, that I would go on to study for a PhD, I would not have believed them. Yet here I am, aged forty seven, embarking on one. I started a part-time Open University BA (Hons) degree … More Baby Brain to PhD, by Rhian Williams

This week’s fly-past of Ultima Thule is a study of ancient history, on both a scientific and a classical reception level. How often does that happen?!   This week’s space news has been the NASA fly-past, by the New Horizons Probe, of the furthest object ever explored in situ, a double object which was nick-named … More Discovering Ultima Thule

Well, it’s that time of year. The schools are breaking up, family are coming to visit, classicists are confusing everyone by shouting ‘Io!’, and there’s actually a gap in the otherwise constant stream of essay-marking. So I’ll be giving up the internet for a couple of weeks (mostly, anyway!), and will be back in January. … More Weekend Reading: Taking a Break