The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
The Romans too often get the good gigs, both on our screens and on the shelves, these days; the Greeks, not so much… That is the starting point of Adrian Goldsworthy’s journey east across the Mediterranean and his sweeping account of the two headline acts at the tip...
Do the good guys always win? It would be nice to think that open, democratic societies are healthier and stronger and have inbuilt advantages over authoritarian regimes. After all, in World War Two the democracies led by Britain and the USA smashed totalitarian...
In this compelling narrative study of the rise and fall of Sparta, Birmingham University professor, Andrew Bayliss, seeks to strip away the myth of the Spartans, peer behind the lens of unreliable ancient historians, and get to the heart of what this extraordinary...
In the fields of the Peloponnese, the image of a lone survivor stood amid hundreds of dead reveals the brutality of ancient warfare and the military values that shaped Spartan life. As the light faded, his energy ebbing with it, the Spartan soldier Othryadas felt his...
Books of 2025 from Aspects of HistoryZeb Baker-Smith Editor of Aspects of HistorySeven Rivers by Vanessa Taylor explores how humanity and waterways have shaped one another across millennia, offering vivid historical portraits of the Nile, Danube, Ganges, Thames,...
Welcome, Natalie, and thank you for talking to us today. My first question is – why do you think there is such an appetite nowadays for fiction set in the ancient world? I think it’s just having a moment, isn’t it? And some of that will probably just be a trend, I...
Summer Reads from Aspects of HistoryLucy Ashe Author of The Sleeping BeautiesThe Eights is Joanna Miller’s debut novel that combines fascinating historical research with the creation of four compelling female characters, The Eights is set at St Hugh’s College, Oxford,...
Winding Down at the Chalke Hist Fest - Saturday & Sunday This was the day that sapped me, the closeness of the heat unendurable and getting oneself up for another talk tricky as the crowds swarmed to Broad Chalke in their droves. The cool mornings, however, have...
