This week I managed to contrive a child-free morning to visit the Hancock Museum in Newcastle. (Its name these days, of course, is The Great North Museum: but I’ve been visiting it since I was a kid, and the new name may never stick in my head.)     I should add that I did … More Weekend Reading: The Life of Brian

It’s been a peculiar week on the internet, with all kinds of odd things popping up: like this article from The Telegraph, which bounces bizarrely from British Museum acquisitions to recreational trepanning. Then of course there are the 30-50 feral hogs who have broken the internet this week. Nobody can quite pin down exactly why this no doubt … More Weekend Reading: Raining, Cats and Hogs

Something very strange has happened to me this week. A curious concatenation of circumstances – like an eclipse, but without all the telescopes. Yes, you guessed it. I’m having a day off. Starting right about … now. I have a whole 36 hours of complete freedom from responsibility. I’m on my own, with no absolutely … More Weekend Reading: On Leisure and Libraries

In this blog I prefer to avoid political issues whenever I can. It’s not because I think the study of Classics isn’t relevant to current affairs; let’s face it, there’s no political situation that’s beyond the reach of Tacitus. No: it’s because I have enough trouble pretending to be an expert on Classics and Education, … More Weekend Reading: The Prime Minister’s Cheese-Box

Over the last week or so there’s been a lot of talk, in the media and across the online world, about race and racism. Much of this is tense, immediate and important. But then there’s the Disney controversy – which, if I’m honest, has been entertaining me for the last two weeks. For those of … More Weekend Reading: Myth and Mermaids

The Classical Internet has been buzzing this week with interest in Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Moda (women) and Alta Sartoria (men) 2019 show, inspired by the ancient world. Classicists around the globe have been engaging in the important business of deciding which outfit to wear for the first day of term.     This one’s my … More Weekend Reading: Dolce et Decorum Est

This week – drum roll please – I’m celebrating the second anniversary of Classical Studies Support; and it’s precisely a year since I started writing these Weekend Reading posts. It has also, coincidentally, been the week in which the site topped 20,000 views – so another reason to celebrate.     Was there cake? I … More Weekend Reading: A Website Anniversary

This week, having found a tiny gap in the marking, I’ve been sucked into the rabbit hole of Old Masters research. Specifically, my Research Question (because I’ve been encouraging my MA Dissertation students this week to form a Research Question!) is this…   Who is the Man in Black, and why is he in this … More Weekend Reading: The Man in Black

Judging by the state of my inbox this week, a lot of people are just a bit miserable at the moment. From the MA students still juggling dissertation ideas, to the Latin and Roman History students recovering from exam panic and beginning to worry about results, most of the people I’ve been talking to lately … More Weekend Reading: Raising a Smile

The rain it raineth on the just And also on the unjust fella; But mainly on the just because The unjust steals the just’s umbrella.   That’s what my undergraduate Latin professor, the late great Donald Hill, used to say on weeks like this, when the rain just won’t let up. The poem’s been stuck … More Weekend Reading: The Rain it Raineth