Joan Smith is an author and journalist. She has written columns for most national newspapers and reviews crime fiction for the Sunday Times. One of her earliest successes was the feminist classic Misogynies, and two of her novels were made into films by the BBC. She was Co-chair of the Mayor of London’s Violence Against Women and Girls Board from 2013 to 2021. Her book Home Grown drew on that experience, revealing the links between domestic violence and terrorism. She has also worked extensively on free speech, chairing an English PEN committee that campaigned on behalf of imprisoned writers, and advising the UK Foreign Office on free expression. She lives in London.

‘An exhilaratingly revisionist account of the women from the Julio-Claudian dynasty… Smith is a polished and exhilarating writer of mordant wit. She guides the reader skillfully through the intricacies of this vast extended family… She makes the precious legacy of the western Classics serve a profound – and provocative – purpose’ Daily Telegraph, Edith Hall

Joan Smith is an author and journalist. She has written columns for most national newspapers and reviews crime fiction for the Sunday Times. One of her earliest successes was the feminist classic Misogynies, and two of her novels were made into films by the BBC. She was Co-chair of the Mayor of London’s Violence Against Women and Girls Board from 2013 to 2021. Her book Home Grown drew on that experience, revealing the links between domestic violence and terrorism. She has also worked extensively on free speech, chairing an English PEN committee that campaigned on behalf of imprisoned writers, and advising the UK Foreign Office on free expression. She lives in London.

‘An exhilaratingly revisionist account of the women from the Julio-Claudian dynasty… Smith is a polished and exhilarating writer of mordant wit. She guides the reader skillfully through the intricacies of this vast extended family… She makes the precious legacy of the western Classics serve a profound – and provocative – purpose’ Daily Telegraph, Edith Hall

Joan Smith is an author and journalist. She has written columns for most national newspapers and reviews crime fiction for the Sunday Times. One of her earliest successes was the feminist classic Misogynies, and two of her novels were made into films by the BBC. She was Co-chair of the Mayor of London’s Violence Against Women and Girls Board from 2013 to 2021. Her book Home Grown drew on that experience, revealing the links between domestic violence and terrorism. She has also worked extensively on free speech, chairing an English PEN committee that campaigned on behalf of imprisoned writers, and advising the UK Foreign Office on free expression. She lives in London.

‘An exhilaratingly revisionist account of the women from the Julio-Claudian dynasty… Smith is a polished and exhilarating writer of mordant wit. She guides the reader skillfully through the intricacies of this vast extended family… She makes the precious legacy of the western Classics serve a profound – and provocative – purpose’ Daily Telegraph, Edith Hall