Bettany Hughes

Early life and education

Hughes grew up in West London. She is the daughter of actors Peter and Erica Hughes, and the sister of the cricketer and journalist Simon Hughes. She was educated at Notting Hill and Ealing High School in Ealing, and at St Hilda's College, Oxford, where she graduated with a degree in ancient and modern history.

She has an honorary doctorate from the University of York.

Career

She is a visiting research fellow at King's College London, formerly a tutor for Cambridge University's Institute of Continuing Education, and an honorary fellow at Cardiff University.

Hughes has written and presented many documentary films and series on both ancient and modern subjects. In 2009, she was awarded the Naomi Sargant Special Award for excellence in educational broadcasting, and in 2012 she was awarded the Norton Medlicott Award for services to history by the Historical Association, of which she is an honorary fellow.

In 2010, she gave the Hellenic Institute's Tenth Annual lecture "Ta Erotika: The Things of Love"; in 2011, Hughes gave the Royal Television Society's Huw Wheldon Memorial Lecture, in which she argued that history on television is thriving and enjoying a new golden age. In 2011, she chaired the Orange Prize for Fiction, the UK's only annual book award for fiction written by women.

Hughes is a patron of The Iris Project, a charity that promotes the teaching of Latin and Greek in UK state schools. She is an honorary patron of Classics For All, a national campaign to get classical languages and the study of ancient civilisations back into state schools. She is an advisor to the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation which aims to foster large-scale collaborative projects between East and West.

In 2014, she was made a Distinguished Friend of the University of Oxford. Hughes is a Vice President of the National Churches Trust.

She was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA) on 3 March 2017. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to history.

Personal life

Hughes is married to Adrian Evans, events director and producer, who was pageant master for the Diamond and Platinum Jubilees; the couple have two daughters Sorrel and May.

Hughes is a vegetarian. In 2016, she delivered the British Humanist Association's annual Voltaire Lecture.

Bibliography

• Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore (2005)

• The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life (2010)

  • The Hemlock Cup was included in The New York Times Bestseller List. It was chosen as Book of the Year by The Daily Telegraph, and it was featured as a Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4. It was shortlisted for a Writer's Guild Award.

• Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities (2017)

  • Istanbul was reviewed by The New York Review of Books and was shortlisted for the Runciman Award in 2018.

• Venus and Aphrodite (2019)

  • Venus and Aphrodite was shortlisted in 2021 for the Runciman Award.

• The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (2024)

• There Was a Roman in Your Garden (2025)

Other writings

• "Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore" – European Cultural Centre of Delphi, XIII International Meeting On Ancient Drama 2007, The Women in Ancient Drama, Symposium Proceedings
• "'Terrible, Excruciating, Wrong-Headed And Ineffectual': The Perils and Pleasures of Presenting Antiquity to a Television Audience" – Dunstan Lowe, Kim Shahabudin (ed.), Classics for All: Reworking Antiquity in Mass Culture. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009,

Filmography

Television

Radio

• Amongst the Medici (2006) BBC Radio 4

Recognition

She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 Women of 2013.

References

References

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4. Harris, Samela. (8 March 2006). "Festival & fringe". The Advertiser (Adelaide, Australia).
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6. "University awards five honorary degrees". york.ac.uk.
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8. (2013). "Bettany Hughes - Curriculum Vitae".
9. "VLV Awards 2009". vlv.org.uk.
10. (13 February 2012). "The HA honours Bettany Hughes for services to History: Medlicott Medal 2012". [[Historical Association.
11. "7 February 2011: Tenth Annual Hellenic Institute Lecture". [[Royal Holloway, University of London]]: The Hellenic Institute.
12. "Huw Wheldon Lecture 2011 with Bettany Hughes: TV – Modern Father of History". [[BBC]].
13. "ORANGE PRIZE FOR FICTION 2011 JUDGES ANNOUNCED". Orange Prize.
14. "History of the prize". womensprizeforfiction.co.uk.
15. "The Iris Project - Classics in Schools and Communities".
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17. "Supporters". classicsforall.org.uk.
18. "Aims & Mission". fstc.org.uk.
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20. (7 December 2023). "Interview with Bettany Hughes: Strange but familiar".
21. "Prof Bettany Hughes". Society of Antiquaries of London.
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23. "My perfect weekend: Bettany Hughes, historian". telegraph.co.uk.
24. Hassell, Katherine. (2023-02-25). "Bettany Hughes: ‘I end up in tombs all the time, but I’m scared of the dark and claustrophobic’". The Guardian.
25. Stanford, Peter. (2022-05-28). "Adrian Evans, Jubilee pageant master: 'We considered making a Queen hologram like ABBA'". The Telegraph.
26. Silverman, Rosa. (2017-10-20). "Bettany Hughes on how the 'snowflake generation' may have cracked the work-life balance". The Telegraph.
27. British Humanist Association. (2016-05-25). "The Voltaire Lecture 2016, with Bettany Hughes {{!}} Socrates, Confucius, and the Buddha".
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30. (19 November 2010). "Books of the Year for Christmas: History". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
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34. Hansen, Suzy. (22 February 2018). "Istanbul Blues". The New York Review of Books.
35. "An Interview with Bettany Hughes". runcimanaward.org.
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37. "Seven Magnificent Books". anglohellenicleague.org.
38. Hughes, Kathryn. (2024-01-05). "The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Bettany Hughes review – wonder lust". The Guardian.
39. "There Was a Roman in Your Garden".
40. "Top Ten Treasures: Egyptian Mummies".
41. "Pompeii: Secrets of the Dead".
42. "Bettany Hughes Treasures of the World".
43. "From Paris to Rome with Bettany Hughes".
44. "Exploring India’s Treasures with Bettany Hughes: release date, destinations and everything we know".
45. "Channel 5 Boards Seven Wonders of the Ancient World".
46. "Bettany Hughes' Lost Worlds".
47. (2013-10-20). "100 Women: Who took part?". BBC News.