{"title":"Books by Bettany Hughes","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781474610384","title":"Venus and Aphrodite","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Lively' THE TIMES\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Engrossing' THE SPECTATOR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Stunning' WOMAN \u0026amp; HOME\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Marvellous' BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThrough ancient art, evocative myth, intriguing archaeological discoveries and philosophical explorations, Bettany Hughes takes us on a voyage of discovery to reveal the truth behind Venus, and why this immortal goddess is so much more than nudity, romance and sex. It is both the remarkable story of one of antiquity's most potent forces, and the story of human desire - how it transforms who we are and how we behave.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43204504420530,"sku":"9781474610384","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781474610384_96eeb3c8-6992-48d2-9bd1-d2a60a576ccc.jpg?v=1786020742"},{"product_id":"9781780224732","title":"Istanbul","description":"\u003cp\u003eTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Life-filled and life-affirming history, steeped in romance and written with verve' \u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Richly entertaining and impeccably researched' Peter Frankopan\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIstanbul has always been a place where stories and histories collide and crackle, where the idea is as potent as the historical fact. From the Qu'ran to Shakespeare, this city with three names - Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul - resonates as an idea and a place, and overspills its boundaries - real and imagined. Standing as the gateway between the East and West, it has served as the capital of the Roman, Byzantine, Latin and Ottoman Empires. For much of its history it was known simply as The City, but, as Bettany Hughes reveals, Istanbul is not just a city, but a story. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this epic new biography, Hughes takes us on a dazzling historical journey through the many incarnations of one of the world's greatest cities. As the longest-lived political entity in Europe, over the last 6,000 years Istanbul has absorbed a mosaic of micro-cities and cultures all gathering around the core. At the latest count archaeologists have measured forty-two human habitation layers. Phoenicians, Genoese, Venetians, Jews, Vikings, Azeris all called a patch of this earth their home. Based on meticulous research and new archaeological evidence, this captivating portrait of the momentous life of Istanbul is visceral, immediate and scholarly narrative history at its finest.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205038571698,"sku":"9781780224732","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781780224732.jpg?v=1786024210"},{"product_id":"9780099554059","title":"The Hemlock Cup","description":"\u003cp\u003eWe think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did. His aphorism 'The unexamined life is not worth living' may have originated twenty-five centuries ago, but it is a founding principle of modern life. For seventy years Socrates was a vigorous citizen of Golden Age Athens, philosophising in the squares and public arenas rather than in the courts of kings, before his beloved city turned on him, condemning him to death by poison.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSocrates lived in and contributed to a city that nurtured key ingredients of contemporary civilisation - democracy, liberty, science, drama, rational thought - yet, as he wrote almost nothing down, he himself is an enigmatic figure.  In \u003ci\u003eThe Hemlock Cup\u003c\/i\u003e, acclaimed historian Bettany Hughes gives Socrates the biography he deserves, painstakingly piecing together Socrates' life and using fresh evidence to get closer to the man who asked 'how should we live?' - a question as relevant now as it has ever been.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43400019312818,"sku":"9780099554059","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099554059_87198ad9-2c91-4433-8345-99df1c960f83.jpg?v=1786011706"},{"product_id":"9780241662151","title":"There Was a Roman in Your Garden","description":"It’s your LUCKY day! You’ve stumbled across an ancient treasure chest in your garden that was buried THOUSANDS of years ago by a child living in ancient Rome. And the chest is packed with 20 strange and curious items that tell us so much about their life, such as:\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eArmour made of REAL crocodile skin\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTwinkling TREASURE said to protect its wearer from evil\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA fun game made of a PIG'S KNUCKLE\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEvidence of the world's first PIZZA!\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eUnpack the treasure chest and discover the objects that a child just like YOU was using thousands of years ago. You’ll uncover fascinating facts and true tales about their school, family life, clothes, games, favourite snacks and so much more.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe true, real-life experiences of children in ancient times is a part of history that has been neglected for far too long – award-winning historian, broadcaster and bestselling author Bettany Hughes is here to dig up this newly discovered information for young budding historians everywhere.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56230163775861,"sku":"9780241662151","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241662151_183f4255-d3a0-43f4-810e-378129307623.jpg?v=1786012222"},{"product_id":"9781474610346","title":"The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e Bestseller\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A wondrous wonderful achievement' STEPHEN FRY\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLonglisted for The Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Seven Wonders of the World were staggeringly audacious impositions on our planet. They were also brilliant adventures of the mind, test cases for the reaches of human imagination. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow only the great pyramid remains fully standing, yet the scale and majesty of these seven wonders still enthral us today. In a thrilling, colourful narrative enriched with the latest archaeological discoveries, bestselling historian Bettany Hughes walks through the landscapes of both ancient and modern time. This is a journey whose purpose is to ask why we wonder, why we create, why we choose to remember the wonder of others. She explores traces of the Wonders themselves, and the traces they have left in history. A magisterial work of historical storytelling, \u003ci\u003eThe Seven Wonders of the Ancient World \u003c\/i\u003ereinforces the exciting and nourishing notion that humans can make the impossible happen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Fantastic...a joy from the outset' PETER FRANKOPAN\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Fascinating...all told with Bettany's natural sense of wonder and adventure' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56301432570229,"sku":"9781474610346","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781474610346_6a6f3d36-e480-4a3b-a329-385f35bc572f.jpg?v=1786020740"},{"product_id":"9781845952143","title":"Helen of Troy","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs soon as men began to write, they made Helen of Troy their subject; for nearly three thousand years she has been both the embodiment of absolute female beauty and a reminder of the terrible power that beauty can wield. Because of her double marriage to the Greek King Menelaus and the Trojan Prince Paris, Helen was held responsible for both the Trojan War and enduring enmity between East and West. For millennia she has been viewed as an exquisite agent of extermination. But who was she?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHelen exists in many guises: a matriarch from the Age of Heroes who ruled over one of the most fertile areas of the Mycenaean world; Helen of Sparta, the focus of a cult which conflated Helen the heroine with a pre-Greek fertility goddess; the home-wrecker of the \u003ci\u003eIliad\u003c\/i\u003e; the bitch-whore of Greek tragedy; the pin-up of Romantic artists.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFocusing on the 'real' Helen - a flesh-and-blood aristocrat from the Greek Bronze Age - acclaimed historian Bettany Hughes reconstructs the context of life for this elusive pre-historic princess and places her alongside the heroes and heroines of myth and history. Through the eyes of a young Mycenaean woman, Hughes examines the physical, historical and cultural traces that Helen has left on locations in Greece, North Africa and Asia Minor. Vivid and compelling, this remarkable book brilliantly unpacks the facts and myths surrounding one of the most enigmatic and notorious figures of all time.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308280263029,"sku":"9781845952143","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781845952143_af76b271-d4c1-421d-b759-553b75e7a10d.jpg?v=1786029628"},{"product_id":"there-was-an-egyptian-in-your-school","title":"There Was an Egyptian in Your School","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt's your LUCKY day! You’ve stumbled across an ancient treasure chest in your school that was buried THOUSANDS of years ago by achild living in ancient Egypt. 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The true, real-life experiences of children in ancient times is a part of history that has been neglected for far too long – award-winning historian, broadcaster and bestselling author Bettany Hughes is here to dig up this newly discovered information for young budding historians everywhere\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57466672972149,"sku":"9780241662175","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241662175.jpg?v=1785654732"},{"product_id":"ancient-egypt-2","title":"Ancient Egypt","description":"Bestselling historian Bettany Hughes unearths the stories of a civilisation through seven of its most precious treasures, revealing the people, power and beliefs that shaped the Nile's enduring world. Drawing on her own vivid first-hand encounters at each site, Hughes brings to life the splendour, drama and humanity of ancient Egypt as never before.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57503642747253,"sku":"9781399642422","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399642422.jpg?v=1786867352"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-bettany-hughes.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}