HELEN OF TROY by Bettany Hughes

Goddess, Princess, Whore

Published in PIMLICO paperback on 5th October 2006

"An entrancing tale of the ultimate pin-up"

Mail on Sunday

"A wonderful read. It's what great history is all about - excitement, a fast-moving story, packed full of information, accessible and brainy, a dazzling combination. Bettany Hughes puts women slap-bang right back at the heart of things. Add to your pile of must-read books."

Kate Mosse, author of Labyrinth

As soon as men began to write, they made Helen of Troy their subject; for close on three thousand years she has been both the embodiment of absolute female beauty and a reminder of the terrible power that beauty can wield.

Acclaimed TV historian Bettany Hughes brings Helen to life, re-constructing the life of this elusive pre-historic princess: her palaces, her slaves, her jewellery, her feasts and her rituals.

Helen is one of the most enigmatic and notorious figures of all time, a subject too elusive for historians to handle. Bettany Hughes is the first author brave enough to take Helen on and she has succeeded brilliantly. As her fellow historian John Julius Norwich put it, "I thought it would not be possible to write a biography of Helen. Bettany Hughes has done so with brilliance and erudition that leaves me gasping." (Independent on Sunday)

But this book is also the history of an idea, a study of female beauty and power and the endless difficulty men have had coming to terms with it, frequently refusing to admit the reality of female force and demoting it to the realms of fiction and the mystical. It leaves us asking questions about the world today, casting new light on the relations between the sexes.

Bettany Hughes has been widely acknowledged as the best of the new generation of TV historians. Her first television series, Breaking the Seal, was produced for BBC 2 and the Open University and she has written and presented The Spartans, Seven Ages of Britain, The Minoans and Helen of Troy for Channel 4. Her work has taken her across Asia Minor, the Balkans and Central Europe. She has two children and lives in London.