Alice Roberts for The Goddess Queen

Professor Alice Roberts is an academic, author and broadcaster, specialising in human anatomy, physiology, evolution, archaeology and history.

In 2001, Alice made her television debut on Channel 4’s Time Team, and went on to write and present The Incredible Human Journey, Origins of Us and Ice Age Giants on BBC2. She is also the presenter of the popular TV series Digging for Britain. Alice has been a Professor of Public Engagement with Science at the University of Birmingham since 2012.

She has written several non-fiction books, including The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being, which was shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize in 2015 and the Sunday Times bestselling Ancestors, Buried, Crypt and Domination.

Our event will be chaired by Joanne Harris (OBE, FRSL). Joanne is the author of twenty novels, three cookbooks and many short stories. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an honorary Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, was Chair of the Society of Authors between 2020 and 2024, and in 2022 was awarded an OBE by the Queen.

There was a moment, just over two thousand years ago, when the whole Mediterranean world could have been ruled by a woman.

The Roman Republic was crumbling, torn apart by rivalries. Egypt was a wellspring of wealth. But its rulers had squandered their advantage and ended up hopelessly indebted to the protection racket that called itself Rome. Now a woman, as Pharaoh, had a chance to reclaim what Egypt had lost, to forge an alliance which would save both Rome and Egypt.

Ancient history, high politics, sex and power collide in this dramatic story of the Egyptian queen who confronted and contested the power of Rome.

This is Cleopatra and Antonius as you've never seen them before, in the first novel from number one bestselling author Alice Roberts.