Charlotte Hobson

The dark side of Venus — goddess of war as well as love

Bettany Hughes shows how Venus’s first embodiment — as Astarte, riding in the bows of a Phoenician boat — encapsulated death and destruction as well as life and sex

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  • Venus and Aphrodite: History of a Goddess

    Bettany Hughes

    Weidenfeld, pp. 241, £12

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Rod Liddle

I liked John Prescott enormously

There was a time we all looked forward to on the BBC Today programme, back in the early years of Tony Blair’s first term as Prime Minister. Late July, early August. Blair had scooted off to San Gimignano, Mandelson was probably on a yacht with an oligarch, even Campbell was away battling his weird inner demons somewhere.

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