Private Passions

Michael Berkeley is joined by Durham University classics professor Edith Hall, whose passion for her subject reaches far beyond the lecture hall or seminar room. She is leading a campaign called Advocating Classics Education to promote teaching in state secondary schools, and her books include Aristotle's Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life, and Ancient Greeks: Ten Ways They Shaped the Modern World. Her most recent book is Facing Down the Furies: Suicide, the Ancient Greeks and Me - a deeply personal account of the psychological damage that suicide inflicts across generations, drawing parallels between her own family history and characters from Greek tragedy. She Talks to Michael about her life and career, and her music choices include Schubert, Beethoven, Gluck and Handel.