Five of the best books about Russia and Ukraine
As Russia wages war, the historian Orlando Figes offers a guide to the literature that illuminates the tensions and the myths of the region
Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman review – myth in Georgian London
A young woman living above an antiquarian shop comes across an ancient vase in this vivid debut
Forget Wordle! Can you crack the Dickens Code? An IT worker from California just did
The writer’s archaic shorthand has baffled experts for over a century. So they launched a deciphering competition for fans – with stunning results that cast new light on his love life and financial peril
Top 10 novels inspired by Greek myths
From James Joyce to Ali Smith and Chigozie Obioma, the archetypal stories of the ancients have inspired some of our best fiction
Top 10 books about self-improvement
In time for new year resolutions, a cultural historian chooses some of the best guides to making a better life, dating back to some of our earliest literature
Top 10 books about the Roman empire
From Edward Gibbon to Asterix the Gaul, the astonishing endurance of the largest state Europe has ever known continues to inspire a compelling literature
George Orwell: how romantic walks with girlfriends inspired Nineteen Eighty-Four
Details from 50 newly released letters echo scenes between Winston and Julia in the dystopian novel
Want horror for Halloween? Critics pick music, books, games and more to help
From a creepy Hollywood comedy to trick or treat for gamers, Guardian critics suggest their cultural classics
Getting over a breakup? Critics pick music, books, games and more to help
Heartbreak is the ailment, could culture be the cure? Our critics’ suggestions to help ease your pain – or channel your angst
Mary Beard: ‘Virgil was a radical rap artist of the first century BC’
The classics professor and author on being inspired by Mary Douglas and terrified by Beatrix Potter
‘I don’t care’: text shows modern poetry began much earlier than believed
Academic finds that lines widely reproduced in the eastern Roman empire are ‘stressed’ in a way that laid the foundations for what we recognise as poetry
Madeline Miller on The Song of Achilles: ‘It helped people come out to their parents’
The American novelist describes how she overcame her fears of a classical backlash to write a gay love story about Achilles and Patroclus
The Women of Troy by Pat Barker review – a Troy story for the sisterhood
Moving from Homer to Virgil, Pat Barker’s second feminist reboot of the classics is a stirring adventure set amid a misogynist dystopia
The Women of Troy by Pat Barker review – bleak and impressive
In the sequel to her Iliad retelling The Silence of the Girls, told from the perspective of captured queen Briseis, Barker moves on from war to its aftermath
Pat Barker on The Silence of the Girls: ‘The Iliad is myth – the rules for writing historical fiction don’t apply’
The Booker-winning novelist knew when she read the Iliad that she would write about Briseis one day