The debonair Basil Marigold's

It comes around every three years and has done since, 1882 when they choose Sophocles to be the first tragedian that was acted out for the audience and his play, Ajax. There followed, in triennial periods now, the now named Cambridge Greek Play. To think it has lasted just over 125 years is quite impressive in itself, especially when in 1890, the  Daily Chronicle  stated that 'Greek Plays are a fashion not likely to last'. Yet it has and now flourishes and provides acting talent to the world, most recently; Loki actor Tom Hiddlestone, who played Orestes, in the 2001 Sophocles  Electra.  These are most talented folk. The Prometheus bound (The Tragedy) was as powerful and as searing as you would expect when you are talking about the god who provided skills to man in defiance of Zeus. Prometheus; the fire bringer, now chained to the rocks and being tortured for betraying the olympian gods and withholding the name of the love interest that should Zeus lie with, then th...

I have no finally finished my first Agatha Christie novel, The ABC murders. As discussed earlier, it was driven by an interesting discussion on BBC Radio 4's 'good reads' programme, was it a good read? Yes, it was a very good read. I have thoroughly enjoyed every single page of the 'Hercule Poirot' murder mystery. I particularly loved the almost alien language and writing style, a product of the book being nearly 80 years old itself. Yet, the language was fluid and carried me along with good descriptive passages and the pace is deceptively quick for a character, in Poirot, who is designed to be slow and thoughtful. It carries along at two speeds, a ripping yarn and above that the thought process of the Belgian unfolds above it and they meet simultaneously, in a beautifully written twist at the end that truly blew me away.  Whatever my preconceptions were the one thing I was aware of, was Christie's love of a plot twist in the style of most thriller novels, a...

Over the last few weeks I have found myself pulled back into resharpening my knowledge of ancient Greek (Athenian, really) theatre. Six years after completing my masters degree dissertation, surprisingly for me at least, on the subject of Greek theatre & transgressive women. A lot has been driven by trying to increase my reading time, attending a couple of plays one a few months ago and the triennial ' Cambridge Greek Play ' , this coming month.  It was whilst reading a book on Greek Dramatists by, Prof Alan Sommerstein of Nottingham University (Not so far away from home) that I stumbled upon a fact I had not known. A little curiosity that seemed quite fun and that fact turned out to be that the creation of Opera may well have been by mistake and therefore, arguably one of the greatest misunderstandings that has spawned an expression of high culture and some of the most appealing works of art in the history of mankind. And it was all evidently built on a huge error mad...

I think it happens that you develop an aversion to something or someone to such a point as to almost erase them from existence, within your universe. For me, this has been relatively easy and is strangely one of the most brutal talents I possess. At times this has been a useful skill, other times, perhaps not. However, it has in this particular case meant that I have managed to reach the ripe old age of 37 having never read, nor felt inclined to ever read, any book by Agatha Christie (I have the same pathological feelings towards Dickens, Austin, Hardy. Though I argue in my head that this is a principled stand in regards to the worlds belief that to be educated or literate you have to read these books or be able to recite page after page; You don't) Yet, it seems I find myself mellowing with age. And it was on the drive home after work listening to the radio when a programme came on that I had not been able to hear. It is a called 'A good Read' website here  and the show ...

It had to happen, at some point, looking back from the birth of our first child. Yet, it was the one situation I had not really thought about until I actually walked out of the place when the thought struck me like a lightning bolt. I had just taken my daughter to her first parents evening; where we read her book of things that she had drawn, painted, written during the past year at nursery. I then listened to her teacher discuss what she was like in class, etc and then we viewed the room where she will go full time next year.  We then left. And then, it struck me about the last parents meeting I attended...I was with my mum! I was the child. Like a small bomb going off in my head, this fact suddenly and without warning flooded my head. I was in Grace's position, accompanied by my parent, for my last parents evening at the age of 14. But no less, that was my last experience of parents evening. Now I experience as the parent. More of my life then sunk into me. There are times...

This, above, is one of the images that Nero use to advertise their burning software. It is a 'pun'. They share the name with the Roman Emperor, Nero, who according to myth, 'fiddled while Rome burnt' (the truth is perhaps a little different in that he didn't fiddle, he actually made a rather concerted and at times proposed clever demolitions to prevent the fire spreading). Yet, the reputation of Nero (who, in other areas was far from perfect, or indeed, normal), means we can picture him playing a fiddle while watching the heart of the world at that time get devoured by fire, set by Christians (if we're replicating all the myths). Rome Burned. It was close to total destruction. It would be like 60+% of London being destroyed in a fire. It was catastrophic. So, as you see, the connection is Nero's great fire of Rome, connected to the Colosseum, the other still physical and most recognisable symbol of Ancient Rome. That's the pun, Nero is burning softwa...

In 411bc. Athens and Sparta were engaged in the greatest Greek war of the classical age; the Peloponnesian war. It had begun 20 yrs previously and the superpowers of the Greek world fought for hegemony. For ease, split geographically; Athens, the democracy, who after the Persian Wars (Ta Medika), had almost accidentally found itself as head of the Delian League of Greek allies that swiftly transformed itself into a loose Athenain Empire, controlled by the efficient and competent, Athenian Navy. Sparta, however, as head of the Peloponnesian league, with their strange dual kingship, had become invincible on land due to their professional army. An entire nation trained in marshal ways from birth. A state of army. Two nations and two different military strengths. The main reason why the war, by 411bc had lasted so long was with neither side willing to engage the other outside of their strength then the neither side could land a knock out blow. War and skirmishes continued and spread thr...