Bettany Hughes

She is the recipient of the Norton Medlicott Medal for History, has been made a Distinguished Friend of Oxford (DFO) for services to the academic and outreach work of Oxford University and was given Europa Nostra’s lifetime achievement award. Her books have been shortlisted for the Writers Guild and Runciman Awards and she was chair of the 2011 Orange Prize for Women’s Fiction (now called the Women’s Prize for Fiction). Hughes is the author of numerous books, including Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore; The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for The Good Life – which was a New York Times bestseller – and Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities – which was a Sunday Times bestseller. She is a Research Fellow at Kings College London and a Professor of History at the New College of the Humanities. She has long championed the re-writing of women back into history and is a patron of a number of international charities. She also co-founded the documentary production company SandStone Global.