Some details about events at this year’s Bath Festival have been released. There are a couple of interesting history talks.

On Monday May 21st David Olosuga will be talking about his book, Black and British: A Forgotten History. I’ve just watched episode 3 of his A House Through Time series on the BBC and continue to be impressed by his skill has a public historian. There ought to be a Fringe event on that date, but I am not certain yet whether that will happen, and if it does whether I will be involved in any way.

On Saturday May 26th Emily Wilson will be talking about her new translation of The Odyssey. It is the first ever translation of the Homerian epic by a woman, and it has been garnering a lot of praise for its fresh and innovative approach. I saw a post yesterday on Twitter where Wilson was talking about her work and noted, quite reasonably, that she decided not to read any other translations as guides. She worked directly from the original Greek. Then, to her surprise, she started seeing reviews mentioning how her presentation of the female characters was much more positive than in any of the translations by men. Gee, I wonder how that could have happened? This is a book I really want to read, and hopefully I will get to see Wilson talk about it.