:Stories of the Greek Gods and Heroes vividly retold

Sex, violence, nudity, romance,sex and heroism. Oh, and all sorts of bizarre and kinky stuff too! No, not a day in the life of Katie Price but a thrilling account of Greek gods and heroes.

From the Gods on Mount Olympus to poor old Icarus and his melting wings, it is all here. Amazing and astounding tales of battles, adventures and derring do.

The battle of Troy and the story of the wooden horse is told in enthralling detail, and will entertain as well as educate.

I've always been quite fascinated by the Greek myths, thanks to an enthusiastic teacher in my very much younger days, who told the stories in an amusing yet illuminating way and fired the imagination of callow schoolboys in a prosaic and unfanciful mining village. The stories were incredible yet in some way they inspired us, we who were postwar urchins, raised on radio serials and Saturday morning cinema. Even now the old film 'Jason and the Argonauts' remains a favourite of mine, with it's plasticine monsters and stop-go animation, it still brings to mind the story of the search for the Golden Fleece.

This book will - or should, if there is any justice - equally inspire and inculculate a thirst for more knowledge of these Titans. In fact, Titans feature strongly in this collection. Prometheus, stealing the secret of fire and passing it to mortals, then suffering his eternal fate of being chained to a rock and having his liver eaten by a seabird. Some of you may well be sympathetic to that torture, I know my liver was in my younger days.

These stories have inspired literature, art, poetry and music over the centuries. Indeed, we speak of muses even today, and the tales told here have passed into common speech over the years. We speak of Trojan horses, and the term has become a feared word in computer terms. We know of the characters and their travails, but maybe not always in the light of their original setting.

The authors are respected and learned Greek Scolars, and Robin Waterfield an established - and acclaimed academic and author, with over 40 books to his credit, mostly aimed at the lay reader, rather than specialist academics. His wife, Kathryn, is a leading Greek Scholar and art advisor. Together they have produced a book filled with wonder. A book that can be easily read, that is enthralling and educational, something that is not easily managed.

There are many illustrations, and these also contribute greatly toward understanding and appreciating the Greek myth and it's hold over art and literature.

This is a book that should certainly be in the collection of anyone reading history, or the classics. Not as a text book, but as light relief from the dry and dusty academic tomes. It's a book that anyone shoul have, since it is equally educational, entertaining and a damn good read!

Four and a half mushrooms.

OFAH



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