The author is an archaeologist who can spin technical straw into narrative gold. Her previous book, River Kings, was on the Vikings - and it was riveting.
The labours of Hercules are as nothing to those of archeo-botanists... tamarisk, red bryony, poplar etc and their role in traditional medicine - based on cuneiform inscriptions and intimate ... read more
A memoir by this most communicative classicist about her own experiences of suicide, and how she found consolation and understanding of herself and her family through close readings of clas... read more
LB could turn straw into gold. Here she describes chancing across the writings of a rather obscure Greek philosopher, and the wonders and illuminations that followed. Transformative.