introduce yourself with 10 bands / musicians you've seen live: The Smiths The Ramones Prince Run DMC The Cocteau Twins Kate Bush The Sisters of Mercy The Violent Femmes Johnny Thunders New Order

Interesting article on William Morris as a thinker for the present moment - resonant with ideas in play for the forthcoming Fitzwilliam Museum exhibition 'A Call to Art: William Morris & the Pre-Raphaelites'.

In my first week as a reporter @simoncraven.bsky.social took me with him to interview Douglas Adams, for the unlamented Your Computer - Dirk Gently was about to launch & we had a tenuous angle talking about Adams’ fascination with technology…

Reposting this as a very proud Fitzwilliam syndic - great that the museum team’s work has been recognised by the Art Fund judges.

Two important volumes - the collected papers of Prof Pat Easterling, the first (and so far only) woman to hold the Regius Chair of Greek at Cambridge, an alumna & honorary fellow of @newnhamcollege.bsky.social, & a hugely important scholar on Greek tragedy. All online via Cambridge core...

On the train to Manchester for the Classical Association conference, where I’ll be chairing a panel on Aristotle’s political thought on Saturday. Sad to leave the seaside behind - as seen earlier this morning.

Remembering the great historian Averil Cameron - I heard her give the talk linked here to a @womeninclassicsuk.bsky.social event, inspiring and powerful.

Beware Thucydiocy - let @nevillemorley.eurosky.social be your guide…

Highlight of the Michaelina Wautier exhibition at @royalacademyarts.bsky.social is her monumental Triumph of Bacchus - she pictured herself as the maenad on the right, & clearly enjoyed painting the luxuriant textures of the god's symbols and followers. A great rediscovery for the history of art.

Have just sent off my slides, so a good time to post a reminder that I'll be speaking about Plato and his life in fourth-century BC Athens at the Oxford Literary Festival on Wednesday next week - more details here, sorry about large author photo!: oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-e...

Metamorfosen @rijksmuseum.bsky.social - a deep dive into the presence of Ovid's epic in art from antiquity to today, beautifully organised by mythical theme. If you can get to Amsterdam to see it (or to Rome, later in the year) strongly recommend!

A reassessment of Quentin Skinner's classic paper on its 50th anniversary, drawn from a @britishacademy.bsky.social conference - Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas and Beyond, edited by @adrianblau.bsky.social & open access at www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

The visual legacy of a counter-cultural moment at the start of the 1980s - includes posters for two of my favourite ever 7" singles, by Scritti Politti and Orange Juice. Artfully curated by the always interesting Philip Hoare for @theguardian.com.

V excited to receive page proofs for a chapter I submitted in 2016 (!) for the forthcoming Brill's Companion to the Reception of Xenophon, on a topic which remains fascinating - Aristotle's use of Xenophon's thought and his exemplary narratives as a source for his own ethnical thought.

Our third blog post in our WCC and Me series is now live!! 🏛️🏛️ Click the link below to read our conversation with Dr Carol Atack wcc-uk.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2026/02/23/w...

The Women's Classical Committee UK (@womeninclassicsuk.bsky.social) is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a series of interviews with those involved at the start - here's my contribution, thanks to @katherinemcdon.bsky.social's interviewing skills: wcc-uk.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2026/02/23/w...

Now online - my review of Sasha-Mae Eccleston's 'Epic Events: Classics and the Politics of Time in the United States since 9/11', an exploration of the intersectional politics of classical reception (spoiler: I found it compelling and learned a lot) www.journals.uchicago.edu/eprint/HPQGZ...

We're hiring at Birkbeck! Lecturer in Ancient History and Classics, full-time and open-ended. Closing date March 18th. Details here: cis7.bbk.ac.uk/vacancy/lect...

Halfway through Athena’s Sisters - a vital read for anyone interested in the social history of classical Athens, and in questions of historical method.

American Psycho at the Almeida - the Guardian has it right, Brett Easton Ellis's novel caught something about 80s culture that was not good then... interesting to hear the audience last night laugh at some dated references, gasp at others which have become more salient in the present moment...

Fabulous Alexander the Great, painted by the Master of the Story of Griselda in the 1490s, currently visiting the Courtauld Gallery in London from the Barber Institute in Birmingham, originally from Tuscany.

Fascinating Slade lecture in Cambridge from Professor Terry Smith, opening his series ’Frames of Vision: The Intelligence of Artists’ with ‘Visual Allegories of Seeing as Knowing, Plato and Giorgione’, showing how Plato’s Cave operates as a ‘hyper-icon’ across time and genre.

For the start of term, here’s one of Axel Salto’s many takes on the story of Actaeon from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, currently on display at the Hepworth Wakefield in a fabulous show of his ceramic and other works.

A long list of museums, archives and libraries - worth looking to see if any of your favourites are using this site.

Finally, the WCC UK is on Bluesky! Lots of exciting updates in the next few months, so do give us a follow @womeninclassicsuk.bsky.social

It’s roughly the tenth anniversary of David Bowie’s death and of me playing my Sex and Gender in classical Greece students this video. No better illustration of early 1970s UK discourse on sexuality than the gap between performers & audience which Bowie bridges so well. m.youtube.com/watch?v=RIrH...

One of my schools talks/taster lectures is called 'The Fragility of Democracy', and I've enjoyed sharing it with many school groups over the past few years, looking at how ancient Greek democracy handled political crises. Right now, am busy updating it for its next outing on Monday...

The paperback of my 'Plato: a civic life' will be published on March 1st. I'll be doing some more talks and podcasts in support, and will add details to this thread as they're confirmed. More info and a pre-order link here: reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/plato

Happy New Year from the Yorkshire seaside. With best wishes to all for 2026 and especially those who’ll be spending the year completing overdue monographs…

Manuscript now submitted!

Hearing from @polphilpod.bsky.social that my 'Plato's tyrant' episode has made the top 5 of his Political Philosophy podcast this year, remembered to post a picture of the 'Plato's tyrant' protest sign which the artist Peter Liversidge made for me at his sign-making studio installation in October.

So much enjoyed talking to Toby @polphilpod.bsky.social and glad that others enjoyed listening!

If you’re looking for wholesome family content how about Giuliano Bugiardini’s delightful family group with Leda, Castor, Clytemnestra and a rather tame swan? Painted in the 1520s and now on display in the Casa Museo Ivan Bruschi, Arezzo?

A very exciting start to the month as the final contribution to the Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Political Thought arrived in my inbox - heading now to submission of a complete and formatted manuscript! Partial contents list as a teaser below:

Such sad news. I loved my lilac and silver mini dress from Pam Hogg's 1980s Kensington market stall. A truely original creative spirit.

My review of Ryan Balot's 'Tragedy, Philosophy, and Political Education in Plato's Laws' now published by Sehepunkte (in English); while I wasn't sure about the book's overall claim about the dialogue's philosophical coherence, I found much valuable analysis in it. www.sehepunkte.de/2025/11/4010...

Warmly recommend Harold Offeh 'Mmm Gotta Try a Little Harder, It Could Be Sweet' at Kettle's Yard - a friendly & generous exploration of identity, playful & participatory - impossible not to dance along to Haroldinho's samba moves, fun to make your own Afrofuturist record cover art.

Published today! Really pleased to see Aristophanes and the Current Moment in print via @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social. My contribution, 'Aristophanes and the Gendered Politics of Performative Assembly' applies Judith Butler's analysis of public protest to Aristophanes' Lysistrata and Ecclesiazusae.

Very pleased to see the WCC UK restate its commitment to the support of trans and non-binary folk in the discipline, particularly in light of the current political climate.

Lucky to catch the last weekend of the stunning San Casciano bronzes' visit to Berlin - these sculptures were ritually buried at a Tuscan healing sanctuary in the 1st century CE after a lightning strike, & were excavated in the last few years. So revelatory about ancient religious practice

'Nanti time like the present. come on, let's get it on...'. Loving Prof Jennifer Ingleheart's trio of translations of Catullus into Polari, the old language of gay Londoners, in Shearsman 145-6. www.shearsman.com/shearsman-ma...

Cambridge’s Black Atlantic connections, a major research project for the Fitzwilliam Museum - commemorating Olaudah Equiano’s Cambridgeshire family, www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The Almeida Theatre adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty captures the glamour and grime of 1980s London, where financial buccaneering, racial inequality and the AIDS crisis upended lives, but we all danced to excellent music. Five stars from me especially for the cast & the design.

Great story and important history from the National Army Museum in today's @theguardian.com - a newly acquired portrait shines a light on a Black veteran of Waterloo, one of several Black soldiers honoured for their service in the Napoleonic wars. www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

On BBC4 tonight, Angie Hobbs on Bryan Magee's series the Great Philosophers, first broadcast in 1987, followed by the first three interviews: Myles Burnyeat on Plato, Martha Nussbaum on Aristotle, and Anthony Kenny on mediaeval philosophy: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Mixed verdict on the @nationaltheatre.org.uk Bacchae - amazing staging and design, loved the chorus, some great performances. Deeply unconvinced though by the back-story given to Pentheus, and some of Dionysus' story - and the omission of Cadmus. www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/...

Unmissable new exhibition at the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge - Made in Ancient Egypt explores this ancient culture through the makers of objects, their skills & the materials they used. Some exquisite objects - I liked this statuette. On show until April 2026.

I've been podcasting again! This time I spoke about how 'Plato: a civic life' provides the historical background to Plato's thought and helps to explain how his ideas developed - with Morteza Hajizadeh from New Books Network: newbooksnetwork.com/plato

My little Plato: a civic life, as reviewed in the New York Sun earlier this year - paywall but you can read one article for free.

'Histories' by Kerry James Marshall at London's Royal Academy - a powerful survey of the American artist's work, his long practice of exploring Black experience and challenging simple stories. Full of humour and moments of delight as well as profound commentary, as in 1994's 'Great America'.