In a festival first, we are delighted to welcome Mary Beard, Britain’s most celebrated classicist, and her son, award-winning historian Raphael Cormack for a lively and thought-provoking conversation that explores how historians make sense of lives that can seem strange or distant to modern eyes. From giggling senators and irritable landlords in the classical world to mystics, clairvoyants and self-styled prophets of the interwar occult boom, the subjects of their recent books may seem worlds apart. But as Beard and Cormack reveal, history is full of individuals trying to make sense of uncertain times—much like we are today. Together, they ask: how do we interpret people whose assumptions differ radically from our own? And how do their stories help us understand our own world? Come and get a glimpse of what these two historians might discuss round their own kitchen table. Part intellectual exchange, part family conversation, this event offers a fresh and engaging look at why history matters—and why the past is never as distant as it seems.