'Once you get going, it really is great (it’s probably my favourite book of all time). But I think classicists tend to underestimate the challenges of some of those initial barriers to enjoying it.' Mary Beard (@wmarybeard ): Odyssey fever the-tls.com/regular-features…

'These are not optional extras in a democratic society, they are main-line essentials.' Mary Beard (@wmarybeard ): Why humans need humanities the-tls.com/regular-features…

Scoops and scruples: a new play set in the world of journalism the-tls.com/arts/theatre/the…

Pulp's ‘fizzy pop’ on film the-tls.com/regular-features…

Gabriel Dax uncovers treachery at MI6 the-tls.com/literature/ficti…

Exploring all sides of ‘wokeness’ the-tls.com/regular-features…

A vacant metropolis is populated by ‘citizen-actors’ the-tls.com/literature/ficti…

'This is a hard book to read, not because, as Gilbert tells us, the story was so painful to write, but because the prose is so bad.' Frances Wilson on Elizabeth Gilbert’s emotional recovery programme the-tls.com/lives/autobiogra…

What is the most interesting item on your bookshelf? ‘Currently, a very sleepy cat.’ Twenty Questions with Vincenzo Latronico the-tls.com/regular-features…

What does a writing day look like for you? ‘I write fiction on Wednesday and Sunday mornings between 1 March and 31 October (inclusive).’ Twenty Questions with Simon Okotie the-tls.com/regular-features…

'This is a fictionalized memoir (in Jen’s words, a “forged truth”) that yearns to resolve a painful question: how to grieve a mother who abdicated her responsibility to be one.' Rhoda Kwan: Forged truths the-tls.com/literature/ficti…

'I decided to escape far from home in the hope of making some inroads into the large pile of books – not so much on a writer’s retreat, more like a reader’s retreat.' Mary Beard (@wmarybeard ): Hotel reading the-tls.com/regular-features…

'Young Asa betrayed a mental fixation unknown to psychology that we might call Compulsive Curiosity Syndrome.' Michael Bentley on the compulsive energy of a unique historian the-tls.com/lives/biography/…

'Goethe’s intellectual accomplishments were shaped by, and gave shape to, the unfolding process of a singularly abundant life.' David E. Wellbery on a Goethe’s achievement as artist, scientist and statesman the-tls.com/lives/biography/…

Our regular literary crossword the-tls.com/regular-features…

'I am sure that, in many ways, I am much less expert at the task than the professionals. But I started to feel that none of them captured what I see as my own “down-to-earthness”.' Mary Beard (@wmarybeard ): Recording your own books the-tls.com/regular-features…

A Roman orator in his element the-tls.com/classics/roman/o…

The mindset of an unrepentant Nazi the-tls.com/history/conversa…

Earthbound experiences of comets and meteorites the-tls.com/regular-features…

What is gained and lost when ideas are set down on paper? the-tls.com/literature/liter…