Bettany Mary Hughes is an English historian, author and broadcaster, specialising in classical history. Her published books cover classical antiquity and myth, and the history of Istanbul. She is active in efforts to encourage the teaching of the classics in UK state schools. Hughes was appointed OBE in 2019.
Early life, education and career
Hughes was raised in west London. She was educated at Notting Hill and Ealing High School in Ealing, and at St Hilda's College, Oxford, where she graduated with a degree in ancient and modern history. She is a visiting research fellow at King's College London, an honorary fellow at Cardiff University, and the holder of an honorary doctorate from the University of York. '' at the British Museum Hughes has written and presented many documentary films and series on both ancient and modern subjects. In 2009, she was awarded the Naomi Sargant Special Award for excellence in educational broadcasting, and in 2012 she was awarded the Norton Medlicott Award for services to history by the Historical Association, of which she is an honorary fellow. In 2010 she gave the Hellenic Institute's Tenth Annual lecture "Ta Erotika: The Things of Love", and in 2011 gave the Royal Television Society's Huw Wheldon Memorial Lecture, in which she argued that history on television is thriving and enjoying a new golden age. In 2011 she chaired the Orange Prize for Fiction, the UK's only annual book award for fiction written by women. Hughes is a patron of The Iris Project, a charity that promotes the teaching Latin and Greek in UK state schools. She is an honorary patron of Classics For All, a national campaign to get classical languages and the study of ancient civilisations back into state schools. She is an advisor to the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation which aims to foster large-scale collaborative projects between East and West. In 2014, she was made a Distinguished Friend of the University of Oxford. In 2016, Hughes delivered the British Humanist Association's annual Voltaire Lecture. She was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London on 3 March 2017. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to history.
Family and personal life
Hughes is the daughter of actor Peter Hughes and the sister of cricketer and journalist Simon Hughes. Bettany Hughes is married to Adrian Evans; the couple have two children. She is a vegetarian.
"Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore" – European Cultural Centre of Delphi, XIII International Meeting On Ancient Drama 2007, The Women in Ancient Drama, Symposium Proceedings
"'Terrible, Excruciating, Wrong-Headed And Ineffectual': The Perils and Pleasures of Presenting Antiquity to a Television Audience" – Dunstan Lowe, Kim Shahabudin, Classics for All: Reworking Antiquity in Mass Culture. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009,
