Orange Prize for Achilles

How thrilling that this year's Orange Prize, the last under that sponsorship, has been award to Madeline Miller for her wonderful book The Song of Achilles. Bravo! In awarding the prize last night, the judges described it as: "inventive, passionate, uplifting and different". I agree.

I have previously blogged about this book (My Greek Crush) and can only offer endless thanks to Caroline for spotting, reading and recommending it in January. Classics is certainly having its day at the moment: think Antigone at the National Theatre this summer, Mary Beard and her Romans on the TV and, coincidentally as I type this, I am listening to a trailer for Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time at 9am this morning on Radio 4 which is about the Trojan wars. Maybe, in an age of conflict and tension, we feel that the classics have a particular resonance at the moment. As Madeline Miller graciously said last night: "Classics will always keep you humble".