Natalie Haynes is a writer, broadcaster and Classicist. Her novel portraying women’s experience of the Trojan War, A Thousand Ships, was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, 2020. Her first novel, The Amber Fury, was published to acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, as was The Ancient Guide to Modern Life, her previous book. Her second novel, The Children of Jocasta,was published in 2017, Pandora’s Jar, a study of women in Greek myth, was published in 2020, followed by Stone Blind, her interpretation of the myth of Medusa, which she presented at ClassicsNow 2023 at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.

She has spoken on the modern relevance of the classical world on three continents, from Cambridge to Chicago to Auckland. She is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4: reviewing for arts programmes, appearing as a team captain on three seasons of Wordaholics, and banging on about Juvenal whenever she gets the chance. Ten series of her show, Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics, have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Her documentary on the Defining Beauty exhibition at the British Museum, Secret Knowledge: The Body Beautiful, aired in 2015 on BBC4 in the UK and on BBC World News everywhere else. She writes for the Guardian and was a judge for the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction, the 2013 Man Booker Prize, and the 2014 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.

Watch Natalie Haynes discussing her book on women in Greek myth, Pandora’s Jar, here→