Search results for ""author charlotte higgins""

'Charlotte Higgins's Red Thread is a masterwork' Ali SmithA thrillingly original, labyrinthine journey through myth, art, literature, history, archaeology and memoir. The tale of how the hero Theseus killed the Minotaur, finding his way out of the labyrinth using Ariadne's ball of red thread, is one of the most intriguing, suggestive and persistent of all myths, and the labyrinth - the beautiful, confounding and terrifying building created for the half-man, half-bull monster - is one of the foundational symbols of human ingenuity and artistry. Charlotte Higgins, author of the Baillie Gifford-shortlisted Under Another Sky, tracks the origins of the story of the labyrinth in the poems of Homer, Catullus, Virgil and Ovid, and with them builds an ingenious edifice of her own. Along the way, she traces the labyrinthine ideas of writers from Dante and Borges to George Eliot and Conan Doyle, and of artists from Titian and Velázquez to Picasso and Eva Hesse. Her intricately constructed narrative asks what it is to be lost, what it is to find one's way, and what it is to travel the confusing and circuitous path of a lived life. Red Thread is, above all, a winding and unpredictable route through the byways of the author's imagination - one that leads the reader on a strange and intriguing journey, full of unexpected connections and surprising pleasures.

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A brilliantly researched and gripping history of the BBC, from its origins to the present day.'The book could scarcely be better or better timed. It is elegantly written, closely argued, balanced, pulls no punches.' MELVYN BRAGG, GUARDIANCharlotte Higgins, the Guardian's chief culture writer, steps behind the polished doors of Broadcasting House and investigates the BBC. Based on her hugely popular essay series, this personal journey answers the questions that rage around this vulnerable, maddening and uniquely British institution. Questions such as: what does the BBC mean to us now? What are the threats to its continued existence? Is it worth fighting for?Higgins traces its origins, celebrating the early pioneering spirit and unearthing forgotten characters whose imprint can still be seen on the BBC today. She explores how it forged ideas of Britishness both at home and abroad. She shows how controversy is in its DNA and brings us right up to date through interviews with grandees and loyalists, embattled press officers and high profile dissenters, and she sheds new light on recent feuds and scandals.This is a deeply researched, lyrically written, intriguing portrait of an institution at the heart of Britain.'Engrossing.' EVENING STANDARD'Beautifully written'. THE SPECTATOR'Exactly observed and beautifully written.' MAIL ON SUNDAY'A loving portrait . . . never creaks with excess.' FINANCIAL TIMES'A pleasingly intricate jigsaw of biography, politics, and opinion.' INDEPENDENT'Excellent and enthralling . . . informative, educational and entertaining.' GUARDIAN

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**NOW A HIT STAGE PRODUCTION**Take a journey around the archaeological and cultural remains of Roman Britain with the award-winning author of Greek Myths. This is a book about the encounter with Roman Britain: about what the idea of 'Roman Britain' has meant to those who came after Britain's 400-year stint as province of Rome - from the medieval mythographer-historian Geoffrey of Monmouth to Edward Elgar and W.H. Auden. What does Roman Britain mean to us now? How were its physical remains rediscovered and made sense of? How has it been reimagined, in story and song and verse? Charlotte Higgins has traced these tales by setting out to discover the remains of Roman Britain for herself, sometimes on foot, sometimes in a splendid, though not particularly reliable, VW camper van. Via accounts of some of Britain's most intriguing, and often unjustly overlooked ancient monuments, Under Another Sky invites us to see the British landscape, and British history, in an entirely fresh way: as indelibly marked by how the Romans first imagined, and wrote, these strange and exotic islands, perched on the edge of the known world, into existence.'Mesmerising... Sophisticated and passionate' Guardian'[A] lyrical, haunting look at Roman Britain and its echo in our culture' Sunday Times

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'A great storyteller' Madeline Miller, author of CirceIn this powerful new collection, Charlotte Higgins foregrounds Greek mythology's most enduring heroines. Here are the myths of Heracles and Theseus, the Trojan war, Thebes and Argos and Athens. They are stories of love and desire, adventure and magic, destructive gods, helpless humans, fantastical creatures and resourceful witches. In this telling the female characters take centre stage as Athena, Helen, Circe, Penelope and others weave these stories into elaborate imagined tapestries. In Charlotte Higgins's thrilling new interpretation of these ancient stories, their tales combine to form a dazzling, sweeping epic of storytelling. With a series of original drawings by Chris Ofili.

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'Visionary.' Bettany Hughes'Tremendous.' Ben Okri'Luminous.' Rose TremainEven when he leapt from the parapet he talked.Ancient Egypt. The Prince is set to marry Pretty Flower, his sister, in the Great House's incestuous society. But the Liar speaks a truth that transforms everything .A primitive matriarchal society. While mothers raise children in the bucolic Place of Women, Chimp is tormented by the Leopard Men in their brutal hunts, until he gains new wisdom .Imperial Rome. In an era of invention and exploration, the emperor realises he loves his illegitimate grandson more than his own loutish heir .

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