Peter Jones

Donald Fagen will forever be associated with Steely Dan, the band he formed with Walter Becker and four other musicians in 1972. The smooth, radio-friendly veneer of the duo's songs made Steely Dan internationally popular and famous in the 1970s, but the polish glossed over the underlying layers of anger, disappointment, sleaze, and often downright weirdness lurking just beneath the...

The ancient Greeks gave us our alphabet and much of our scientific, medical, and cultural language. They invented democracy, atomic theory, and the rules of logic and geometry; laid the foundations of philosophy, history, tragedy, and comedy; and debated everything from the good life and the role of women, to making sense of foreigners and the best form of government,...

Based on the same principles as Learn Latin, Peter Jones’s bestselling book of the hugely popular Daily Telegraph series, this book teaches you enough Greek in 20 chapters to be able to read some real ancient Greek – one of the world’s greatest languages, used by one of the world’s greatest cultures. By the end of the course, you will...

In this revealing and entertaining guide to how the Romans confronted their own mortality, Peter Jones shows us that all the problems associated with old age and death that so transfix us today were already dealt with by our ancient ancestors two thousand years ago. Romans inhabited a world where man, knowing nothing about hygiene let alone disease, had no...

The Romans left a long-lasting legacy and their influence can still be seen all around us—from our calendar and coins, to our language and laws—but how much do we really know about them? Help is at hand in the form of Veni, Vidi, Vici, which tells the remarkable, and often surprising, story of the Romans and the most enduring empire...

In this original and highly accessible book, Peter Jones takes the reader on a fascinating journey along the highways and byways of Roman life and culture, telling the amazing stories behind the original Latin meanings and uses of hundreds of our everyday words. Taking in every aspect of the ancient world, including science, religion, military matters, politics, and literature, Jones...

'Jones has an eagle's high eye for the history of Rome' - The Times'Jones makes the classical world feel both beguiling and fresh' - Sunday TimesYou may think about the Roman Empire every day, but I bet you rarely think about the plebs. The plebs were the commoners, the general populace and lower social classes, and as such their feelings,...

Donald Fagen will forever be associated with Steely Dan, the band he formed with Walter Becker and four other musicians in 1972. The smooth, radio-friendly veneer of the duo's songs made Steely Dan internationally popular and famous in the 1970s, but the polish glossed over the underlying layers of anger, disappointment, sleaze, and often downright weirdness lurking just beneath the...

Beautiful Banknotes of France by Peter Jones reveals the art and stories behind fifty of the most beautiful banknotes ever produced, often referred to as the "French touch". France printed these notes during the 1900s. The author provides full-page photos of each note, detailing the designer and the meaning behind the designs, along with fascinating biographies, historical context, and economic...

Peter Jones provides a line-by-line commentary on Homer's Odyssey that explains the factual details, mythological allusions, and Homeric conventions that a student or general reader could not be expected to bring to an initial encounter with the Odyssey. It also illuminates epic style, Homer's methods of composition, the structure of the work, and his characterisation. The introduction describes the features...

Learn Latin presents in handy book form the brilliant QED series of teach-yourself Latin articles, which have captivated thousands of readers of the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph. In twenty weeks, these readers were able to learn enough Latin to read from the Bayeux tapestry, the love-poet Catullus, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, St. Jerome’s Vulgate (the Bible in Latin),...

A disarming, surprising history from a riveting new voice. Peter Jones explores art, mysticism and literature to show how the Middle Ages used the Seven Deadly Sins as a roadmap for a happier and healthier life. What can a twelfth-century monk teach us about burnout, envy, or despair? Far more than we might imagine. In Self-Help from the Middle Ages,...