Jane Austen, Simone de Beauvoir and Herodotus

On Sunday, the far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) won the state election in Saxony-Anhalt with 44 per cent of the vote, the highest share for any far-right party in post-1945 Germany. Among the many surprising aspects of the result was the broad, multigenerational ...  Show more

The story of why, and how, an arrow ended up in Harold's eye in the Bayeux Tapestry is tied to the politics of the early 19th century, to Napoleon's ambitions and Britain's national pride, and the work of two antiquaries, Anne and Charles Stothard, who travelled to northern Franc ...  Show more

This week, we drop in on a conversation between Mary Beard and two former TLS editors; and Anne Enright joins us to talk about turning poet in her new novel.'Emperor of Rome: Ruling the ancient Roman world', by Mary Beard'Big Caesars and little Caesars: How they rise and how they ...  Show more

This week, Lisa Hilton on the truth behind life as a 'grand horizontale'; and Juliette Bretan explores why Virginia Woolf served up boeuf en daube in To the Lighthouse.'Kingmaker: Pamela Churchill Harriman’s astonishing life of seduction, intrigue and power', by Sonia Purnell'Eur ...  Show more

This week, James Marcus goes partying with Susan Sontag and George Steiner; and Laura Beers sheds a light on Eileen O'Shaughnessy, George Orwell's first wife.'Maestros and monsters: Days and nights with Susan Sontag and GeorgeSteiner', by Robert Boyers'Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's invis ...  Show more

Why might a woman have willingly confined herself to a cell for the rest of her life? Why have so many female authors in history published under aliases or initials? And what was Jane Austen’s dirtiest joke?In this episode of Betwixt the Sheets, Kate is joined by Anna Beer to dis ...  Show more