Brittany hughes historian biography

Katherine Clements speaks to Bettany Hughes about women in history, gender equality and her love affair with Istanbul. Since , when she became the first woman to present a TV history programme a date that seems shockingly recent Bettany Hughes has been tackling the big issues: sex, power, politics and religion. From her first book, Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore , to her recent TV documentary Venus Uncovered , Hughes has studied history to explore and understand some of the most pertinent and pressing questions of our time.

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The result is her latest book, the product of a lifelong love affair. First published in January , Istanbul delighted reviewers and reached the Sunday Times bestseller list. It publishes in paperback on 28th December you can win a signed copy here. Because it has always been a meeting place, not just of east and west, but also, critically, of north and south — and people forget that — that the Bosphorus links Russia in the north to Africa in the south.

So, if you explore the story of the city you end up exploring the story of the world.

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Imagining the depths of research material she much have waded through, I wonder how on earth she decided what to keep in, and what to leave out. She says the latter was one of the hardest choices to make, so she set some rules. One was seeing how Istanbul has been affected by the rest of the world, and how what has happened in the city rolled out to impact the global story — so there had to be an international connection.

And also, critically, women as well as men. Hughes is well known for championing female figures, real and mythical, and much of her work concerns how women have been viewed across time, and how that impacts our modern culture. That subject persists in Istanbul; several extraordinary women are placed front and centre of the narrative.

Does she have a favourite? I discovered her 20 years ago and have been gently writing about her ever since.