In Conversation: Daisy Dunn

For  centuries, men have been writing histories of antiquity filled with  warlords, emperors and kings. But when it comes to incorporating women  aside from Cleopatra and Boudica, writers have been more comfortable  describing mythical heroines than real ones.

While Penelope and Helen of Troy live on in the imagination, their  real-life counterparts have been relegated to the margins. In The  Missing Thread, Daisy Dunn inverts this tradition and puts the women of  history at the centre of the narrative.

These pages present Enheduanna, the earliest named author, Telesilla,  who defended her city from attack, and the poet Sappho. Here is  Artemisia, sole female commander in the Graeco-Persian Wars, and  Locusta, Rome’s premier toxicologist. Cleopatra may be the more famous,  but Fulvia, Mark Antony’s wife in Rome, fought a war on his behalf. Many  other women remain nameless but integral.

Through new examination of the sources combined with vivid  storytelling, Daisy…