Hardcover/Softcover: UK : It’s all Greek to modern man

A modern equivalent of the “face of Agamemnon” might be the Roman sculpted head that turned up in the Rhone last year, which was widely reported as depicting Julius Caesar. (“Come off it,” countered skeptical blogger Beard.) Her collection of sharply observed, often hilarious slices of academic life (Profile) ranges from the apparently trivial (the joys of cocktail-making; why it took the fellows of Newnham College, Cambridge, three years to acquire a coffee machine) to the crucial (proto-racism in the ancient world; why Latin matters). Gamely, some of the comments in response are included, although this reader, for one, is more inclined to agree with the erudite “regulars” such as Michael Bulley and Oliver Nicholson than with the person who advised: “Stick to making jam, Mary.”

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