Caravaggio and the Language of Dress
9th October, 2025
In this blog, author Elizabeth Currie talks about the subject of her new book, Street Style, Caravaggio, and his works in relation to the language of dress. *** Caravaggio’s appeal goes from strength to strength. He was the subject of a blockbuster e…
The Miraculous and the Monstrous
13th August, 2025
In the second of his two blogs, author of Miracula: Weird and Wonderful Stories of Ancient Greece and Rome, Paul Chrystal, takes you through the monstrous world of the ancients. *** Last time, I introduced you to Miracula – my new, unconventional boo…
Alexander the Great – What is History?
9th August, 2025
In this blog, author of Alexander the Great: Lives and Legacies, Stephen Harrison ponders what is the significance of a new book on Alexander, and how this one came to be. *** Sometime in the middle of the second century CE, Lucius Flavius Arrianus –…
The Hidden Realm of the Sea
7th August, 2025
To celebrate National Marine Week, marine biologist and author of Ocean Art, Helen Scales, explores her love of sea life and how artists have long been helping people to care about this hidden realm. *** I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know abo…
Marking the 80th Anniversary of Hiroshima
6th August, 2025
Alec Ryrie’s new book, The Age of Hitler and How We Will Survive It, is an examination of our Nazi fixation and the unravelling of post-war moral consensus today. In this blog, Alec takes a closer look at this fixation and what is to become of us as…
Introducing Miracula
29th July, 2025
In this blog, author Paul Chrystal introduces you to the weird and wonderful world of his new book… *** Introducing you to a new book on the classical world that isn’t just about that dubious alpha male Julius Caesar, the not so bloody bloodbath Co…
Ways of Seeing Brunelleschi’s Dome
1st July, 2025
Planning a visit to Florence, Italy? Then you’ll probably be planning to spot Brunelleschi’s Dome. In this blog, author Marvin Trachtenberg discusses the best way to appreciate it… *** As a scholar of Renaissance architecture I am sometimes asked,…
Our Extinct Animal Kin
17th June, 2025
Barbara Allen has written a book about extinct animals (Lost Animals, Disappearing Worlds) and in this blog, she writes about the process of coming to write the book, and how it is a love letter to all those gone before. *** How do we narrate the liv…
The Ninth Century: Bishop Æthelwald’s Prayerbook 47
6th June, 2025
In this, the second of twelve blog posts, author Michelle P. Brown focuses on one illuminated manuscript from the 9th century. You can read more about this, and other manuscripts, in her new book, Illumino. *** From the mid-8th to mid-9th centuries t…