Charlotte Higgins

The Romanization of Britain was greeted, on first publication, as an innovative study of cultural change and interaction, offering a bold new perspective on Roman Britain based on archaeological evidence. It set out to explore the social dynamics of cultural change from a local perspective by looking at the patterns of interaction between provincial peoples and imperial power. Drawing together a wide range of excavated data as well as textual evidence, it provided a new synthesis of the province whilst offering an alternative way of understanding cultural change in the Roman Empire more widely. Its publication served to catalyse debate, stimulating very considerable discussion and generating a wide variety of responses in a range of publications. This revised edition adds a new introductory essay exploring the genesis of this classic work and reviewing the subsequent debate, while also recalibrating the author's perspective on cultural change within the wider Roman provinces.

The Romanization of Britain was greeted, on first publication, as an innovative study of cultural change and interaction, offering a bold new perspective on Roman Britain based on archaeological evidence. It set out to explore the social dynamics of cultural change from a local perspective by looking at the patterns of interaction between provincial peoples and imperial power. Drawing together a wide range of excavated data as well as textual evidence, it provided a new synthesis of the province whilst offering an alternative way of understanding cultural change in the Roman Empire more widely. Its publication served to catalyse debate, stimulating very considerable discussion and generating a wide variety of responses in a range of publications. This revised edition adds a new introductory essay exploring the genesis of this classic work and reviewing the subsequent debate, while also recalibrating the author's perspective on cultural change within the wider Roman provinces.

For more than a decade, the Barbican Young Poets programme has served as a base for experimentation, creative development and an ever-extending community of poetic practice. To Be Languaged Thus collects and celebrates work produced by poets of the 2023 cohort. From horror movie tropes and hospital wards to the poetics of botany, a meditation on the colour blue, and many other points along the way, these poems stand as a compelling collective vision of what's possible in contemporary poetry.

'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.

A brilliantly original, landmark retelling of Greek myths, recounted as if they were actual scenes being woven into textiles by the women who feature prominently in them--including Athena, Helen, Circe and Penelope "Greek myths were full of powerful witches, unpredictable gods and sword-wielding slayers. They were also extreme: about families who turn murderously on each other; impossible tasks set by cruel kings; love that goes wrong; wars and journeys and terrible loss. There was magic, there was shape-shifting, there were monsters, there were descents to the land of the dead. Humans and immortals inhabited the same world, which was sometimes perilous, sometimes exciting. "The stories were obviously fantastical. All the same, brothers really do war with each other. People tell the truth but aren't believed. Wars destroy the innocent. Lovers are parted. Parents endure the grief of losing children. Women suffer violence at the hands of men. The cleverest of people can be blind to what is really going on. The law of the land can contradict what you know to be just. Mysterious diseases devastate cities. Floods and fire tear lives apart. "For the Greeks, the word muthos simply meant a traditional tale. In the twenty-first century, we have long left behind the political and religious framework in which these stories first circulated--but their power endures. Greek myths remain true for us because they excavate the very extremes of human experience: sudden, inexplicable catastrophe; radical reversals of fortune; and seemingly arbitrary events that transform lives. They deal, in short, in the hard, basic facts of the human condition." --from the Introduction

'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.

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

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? This book traces 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.