This is not my book. It is a proof of the cover of my book, which is written but not yet printed, ineptly wrapped around quite a different book of roughly the same size (by Jacquetta Hawkes, for good luck). My book is out on September 9. I love this cover.

Working on this piece on Volodymyr Vakulenko broke my heart multiple times, but never so much as the day I finished writing it.

Working on this piece on Volodymyr Vakulenko broke my heart multiple times, but never so much as the day I finished writing it.

🟠 Kate Davis 'Natural History' is at Pollokshields Library until 29th July. It includes a limited edition artist's book, free and available to take home for all visitors to the library. Commissioned as part of 'anywhere in the universe' and accompanied by a text by @chiggi

I'm pretty sure there's a whole generation of us who were formed in one way or another by the film A Room With A View, and here, after the terribly sad and untimely death of Julian Sands, I tried to write about why I love it so.

I'm pretty sure there's a whole generation of us who were formed in one way or another by the film A Room With A View, and here, after the terribly sad and untimely death of Julian Sands, I tried to write about why I love it so.

My GREEK MYTHS: A NEW RETELLING is 99p on Kindle - but only till the end of the month.

Well, it wouldn't be a crazy 72 hours in Russian history without a tendentious classical parallel being drawn - so here goes!

Sisters @thestephmerritt @suzifeay: loved loved loved your ep of @BacklistedPod

This is heaven. The author is quite obviously a delight and a marvellous example of humanity

For which I owe my pal @swajones, Guardian Madrid corr, for picking up on this terrific discovery, published in a Spanish scholarly article (link in piece)

“I imagine a young man, his left hand steadying the bulk of the pot. In his right hand, the metal tip of his stylus meets the resistance of half-dried clay, his memory obedient—mostly—to the beat of Virgil's lines.” Me on t'lovely Spanish Virgil discovery

The head of Ukraine's ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, is a classics buff: “When you read Plutarch... or about the battle of Cannae, the principles are the same: flanking & surrounding the enemy, concentrating the effort at their weakest point of defence”

No surprises here...A court in Moscow rejected an appeal against the extended detention of our dear friend and colleague Evan Gershkovich. He will remain in jail at least until 30 August. If you would like to write him a letter, please send it to FreeGershkovich@gmail.com

These things were, as I understand it, generally manufactured in bulk by enslaved people in Spain. There's a whole hill made out of their fragments in Testaccio, Rome, where you can still feel the oil on your fingers (and see their fingermarks in the clay) Story by @swajones

If they are right this is lovely: lines from the opening of Virgil's GEORGICS scraped into the wet clay of a amphora... it's the bit about acorns being replaced by ears of corn by Ceres and Bacchus (ie the invention of farming).

It's a misty and magical start to the day here in Glastonbury.

“The scale of the catastrophe doesn’t fit in the finite box of your imagination” @mykhed_o tries to comprehend the horror of the Nova Kakhova dam destruction, horror piled on horror in this awful war.

Manchester! Event! Me + Mary Beard talking about her career, books, and much more - 18 October, RNCM.

My GREEK MYTHS is on 99p offer for June on Amazon Kindle. Leap into the blue!

Charlotte Higgins’(@chiggi) new text, 'On her high horse', is now available to read on our website. Higgins' text accompanies Kate Davis' 'Natural History' a limited edition artist book and special presentation currently on view at Pollokshields Library. https://t.co/3UjeJklkMV