From Eve to Austen: Women in Literature

In this new mini-series, we're exploring and celebrating women whose sexuality was used to define them.First up is Roman Empress Theodora. How did "Theodora from the brothels", as she was known, rise to be the most powerful woman across the Roman Empire?Joining Kate today is auth ...  Show more

Sex in the distant past is often thought about with all the fun taken out of it.Pleasure must have been a part of the sex lives of women and men in the past, so what evidence do we have to back this up? What evidence of queer sex and attraction is there? And how did the Victorian ...  Show more

Jane Austen is arguably the most famous female writer in history. Her novels have gone on to inspire countless films, plays, and dramas all over the world, and have been translated into almost 50 different languages. But how did an 18th Century woman create stories that are still ...  Show more

You've heard of Shakespeare, but have you heard of his contemporary Mary Sidney, the first person to translate the Book of Psalms into English poetry? Or what about Elizabeth Cary, who published the first original play known to be written by a woman in English? In her new book Sh ...  Show more

In 2019, journalist Elizabeth Winkler wrote an article for the Atlantic, in which she asked whether Shakespeare's plays might have been written by someone other than the man born in Stratford-upon-Avon. The backlash to her article raised a new set of questions: Why are academics ...  Show more

Famous throughout antiquity, yet retold only in fragments today - who is Sappho? Her poetry inspired generations, from Catullus to Byron, so how come we know so little about her life? This week Tristan is joined by Professor Margaret Reynolds from Queen Mary University in ...