It wasn't just heated floors, hot baths, aqueducts, and paved roads that the Romans did first and best--they were also experts at the art of love. From the most effective pickup lines to percipient advice on getting over a breakup, from grooming tips to sex tips, the Romans had time-proof solutions.[...]
Why is ancient Greece important? Because, quite simply, if we want to understand the modern Western world, we need to look back to the Greeks. Consider the way we think about ethics, about the nature of beauty and truth, about our place in the universe, about our mortality. All this we have learned [...]
What does Roman Britain mean to us now? How were its physical remains rediscovered and made sense of? How has it been reimagined, in story and song and verse? This book traces these tales by setting out to discover the remains of Roman Britain for herself, sometimes on foot, sometimes in a splendid,[...]
This is a book about the encounter with Roman Britain: about what the idea of 'Roman Britain' has meant to those who came after Britain's 400-year stint as province of Rome - from the medieval mythographer-historian Geoffrey of Monmouth to Edward Elgar and W.H. Auden. What does Roman Britain mean to[...]
Sometimes on foot, sometimes in a magnificent, if not entirely reliable, VW camper van, Charlotte Higgins sets out to explore the ancient monuments of Roman Britain. She explores the land that was once Rome s northernmost territory and how it has changed since the years after the empire fell. Under [...]
'The BBC, to my mind at least, is the most powerful British institution of them all, for, as well as informing, educating and entertaining, it permeates and reflects our existences, infiltrates our imaginations, forms us in myriad ways.' Charlotte Higgins, the Guardian's chief culture writer, steps [...]