June 03rd, 2024

If you had as abysmal a history teacher as I did when I was a teenager, whose idea of teaching was to fill blackboard after blackboard with notes and tell us to copy and learn them, the study of the past became a big turn-off.

Enter Derek Jacobi, with John Hurt as the psychopathic Caligula, in the BBC’s adaptation of Graves’ books I, Claudius and Claudius the God, and Roman history suddenly came marvellously alive. It wasn’t about wars and politics, but a family—and the stammering Claudius who survives even his appalling grandmother, Livia, to become emperor.
 
It wasn’t until much later that I read the books and discovered just how superbly historical fiction could be written. What is it about antiquity that brings out the best in writers? Graves’ autobiography of Claudius is one of the most tremendous reads you will ever have.