Richard Jenkyns is Professor Emeritus of the Classical Tradition at Oxford University, and has written numerous books interpreting the great authors of the ancient world. Other books of his explore the influence of that civilisation on our own, and thus provide a searching critique of present day culture, notably God, Space and the Roman Imagination (OUP 2013) and Classical Literature(Pelican 2016). As Public Orator at the University he composed many addresses, in Latin, to accompany awards of Honorary Doctorates to many people of our time, distinguished in the worlds of science, politics and the humanities. He has also written a brilliant book on Westminster Abbey (Profile, 2004), and a delightful one on Jane Austen, to whom he is related: A Fine Brush on Ivory (OUP 2004).