A riveting, lively and brilliantly researched biography of Socrates by the author of the acclaimed bestseller Helen of Troy.
We 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.
Socrates 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 The Hemlock Cup, 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.
Bettany Hughes is an award-winning historian, author and broadcaster, who has devoted the last 25 years to the vibrant communication of the past. Her speciality is ancient and mediaeval history and culture. A Scholar at Oxford University, she has taught at Oxford and Cambridge Universities and lectured at Cornell, Bristol, UCL, Maastricht, Utrecht, Manchester and Swansea. She is a Tutor for Cambridge University’s Institute of Continuing Education, a Research Fellow of King's College London and recently joined the New College of the Humanities as Professor of History. She has written and presented over 50 TV and radio documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4, Netflix, Discovery, PBS, The History Channel, National Geographic, BBC World and ITV and is Co-Founder and Creative Director at Sandstone Global Productions. Her programmes have now been seen by over 250 million worldwide and include the hit Channel 4 TV series Treasures of the World. She has been honoured with numerous awards including Europe’s Cultural Heritage Prize and an OBE for services to history. Bettany is also an honorary, founding patron of Classics For All - a national campaign to get classical languages and the study of classical civilisations back into state schools. She was named as one of the BBC’s 100 Global Woman, was asked to launch the UK’s Inspiring Women mentoring scheme and in 2017 she was chosen as one of London’s 20 most influential cultural people by the Evening Standard in their 1000 awards. She sat on the Innovation Committee of NESTA and has been an advisor to the Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation. Bettany has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Sunday Times and chaired the Man Booker panel. She judges for BAFTA, Queen’s Anniversary Prize and the Royal Television Society, amongst others.
