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?

We’re having a mini-apocalypse here in the North of England. People are dropping like flies: I’ve never seen anything like it. Whole schools are closing to be deep-cleaned. Almost everyone I know has something unpleasantly infectious, ranging from mild colds to weird and vicious viruses, and so we’re all somewhere on the spectrum from ‘fed … More Weekend Reading: The Stylish Classicist’s Christmas List

This week I was delighted to reach the pinnacle of classical artistic accomplishment. Yes, that’s right: I was awarded first prize in the Roman History category of the Legonium Photography Competition! (I’m very proud: I haven’t even won a raffle in years…!) The brief was to take a picture of a scene from Roman history … More Weekend Reading: And The Award Goes To…

This week the internet has been all snarled up with politics – and not the classical kind. So it’s probably time for me to re-state my commitment to having an apolitical website. No party politics, no opinions on Brexit, no views on current electoral issues will be expressed here. My political convictions are my own, … More Weekend Reading: Sage on the Stage at the Sage

This one’s for all the people who’ve been complaining that I didn’t give you enough notice of Gina’s Asclepius seminar…! Make sure you book soon, because spaces do go quickly.     There are some really exciting Saturday Afternoon Seminars coming up, presented by Dr Gina May.  They start with Roman Coins Uncovered on Saturday … More Saturday Afternoon Treats

When I was eight years old I wanted to be Catherine Cookson. Or maybe Uhura – I hadn’t quite decided. So I started writing stories and learning French from my friend’s big sister at the same time, to keep my options open. Dame Catherine Cookson grew up in my town. She wrote about the history … More Weekend Reading: Histories and Testaments

This week I’ve been swamped, again. I’ll spare you the details. Suffice it to say, there’s been a great deal of chaos – and not the interesting kind. That’s why my list of links is a bit short this week. Do let me know if I’ve missed anything good. But I did find time at … More Weekend Reading: A Pontypandy Aeneid

People are always asking me where they can find short Classics courses, to add to their current studies or fill in a gap between modules, or to introduce them to a completely new topic. The Open University doesn’t do much of this at the moment – the trend now is for big modules with lots … More Join Gina for Short Courses

It’s been another one of those disturbing weeks, with classicists taking to the internet to highlight scandals and injustices, and with a full complement of classical-political lunacy. The Paideia drama continues to rumble on (for those UK classicists who may not have been following, the Paideia Institute is a US-based Latin-teaching organisation which claims to … More Weekend Reading: Caesar’s Secrets

It’s happening again. Classics is popping up all over the place. The other day I checked Twitter and found that ‘quo vadis?’ was trending: not the movie, but people using (or inquiring about) the actual Latin phrase. (You know, when thousands of people all across the UK start using Latin on social media at the … More Weekend Reading: Competitive Classics