Civilisations: How Do We Look / The Eye of Faith

'The reigning Queen of Classics' Spectator 'Mary Beard is the best in the business' Dan Snow 'Excellent' Guardian 'Enthralling' Sunday Times Britain's most famous classicist asks: what are civilisations? Central to this huge question are the ways in which we have depicted the human and the divine from prehistory to the present day. And across such iconic creations as Angkor Wat, the Ravenna mosaics and China's terracotta army, one ancient representation of the human body still influences (or distorts) how people in the West see not only their own culture but that of others. From idolatry to iconoclasm, Mary Beard shines her spotlight on the artists who made art, and on those who have used, viewed, or interpreted it - and asked how to look with the eye of faith.

Mary Beard is the most acclaimed classicist working today. She is the Professor Emerita of Classics at Cambridge and is the Classics editor of the TLS. She is also the co-host, with Charlotte Higgins, of the podcast Instant Classics. Her previous books include the bestselling, Wolfson Prize-winning Pompeii as well as Confronting the Classics, SPQR, Women & Power and Emperor of Rome. Her work has been published in over 35 languages.