Peter Stothard's latest book is On the Spartacus Road: A Spectacular Journey Through Ancient Italy. He is also the author of Thirty Days, a Downing Street diary of his time with British Prime Minister Tony Blair during the Iraq war.

The Queen

After seven tries, Peter Stothard, the editor of the Times Literary Supplement, has finally written the book on Cleopatra that he always wanted to. Here he recounts how the sole surviving example of her signature helped inspire him to write.

Where do novels come from, the Roman tourist invasion, Dickens at 200, and other great reads from the Times Literary Supplement.

The editor of the Times Literary Supplement picks the best reads, from how the night was illuminated, to the forgotten explorer of the Nile, to books analyzing the fall of Mubarak.

From the legendary poet and religious radical John Donne to Julian Barnes’ latest novel, the editor of the TLS Peter Stothard picks his favorite new reads from Britain.

This week: a man uncovers his grandfather's Nazi past, the private life of Caravaggio, and the rose in all its forms.

The editor of the TLS, Peter Stothard, picks his favorite British reads. This week: the history of vampires, the morally squalid milieu of Edward St Aubyn's novels, and prefaces to Shakespeare.

Each week, the editor of the Times Literary Supplement picks his favorite reads. This week: Tim Parks on why translators are overlooked in the Nobel Prize, a history of Broadway, and the complicated life of Benjamin Britten.