Book Club

About Weavers, Scribes, and Kings:
In this sweeping history of the ancient Near East, Amanda Podany takes listeners on a gripping journey from the creation of the world’s first cities to the conquests of Alexander the Great. The book is built around the life stories of many ancient men and women, from kings, priestesses, and merchants to brickmakers, musicians, and weavers. Their habits of daily life, beliefs, triumphs, and crises, and the changes that people faced over time are explored through their own written words and the buildings, cities, and empires in which they lived.

Weavers, Scribes, and Kings creates a tapestry of life stories through which listeners will come to know individuals from many walks of life, and to understand their places within the broad history of events and institutions in the ancient Near East. These stories are preserved on ancient clay tablets, which allow us to trace, for example, the career of a weaver as she advanced to become a supervisor of a workshop, listen to a king trying to persuade his generals to prepare for a siege, and feel the pain of a starving couple and their four young children as they suffered through a time of famine. What might seem at first glance to be a remote and inaccessible ancient culture proves to be a comprehensible world, one that bequeathed to the modern world many of our institutions and beliefs, a fascinating place to visit.

Sunday, 27th April 2025, at 7pm (GMT)/2pm (ET) 
Pantheon: An Illustrated Handbook to the Greek Gods & Goddesses by Caroline Lawrence

About Pantheon:
Get to know the ancient Greek gods and goddesses…and find out why their stories are still so enthralling today.

Discover how to identify each god, demigod, hero or monster from the ancient Greek world through their attributes and symbols, learn about their most famous stories from ancient sources and myths, and find out how these characters were viewed and worshipped in classical times.

From Aphrodite to to Dionysus, Helen of Troy to the Minotaur, bestselling author and classicist Caroline Lawrence brings together all the information you need to really get to know the gods and goddesses. Classical sources such as the Homeric epics, ancient art and archaeological finds inform each god’s profile, while sections on mythical figures in contemporary culture show how these gods and their stories have stood the test of time. Classical illustrator Flora Kirk’s stunning, colourful artworks accompany each profile, making this a beautiful, must-have companion guide to the myths.