1. Ex-slaves of Rome and historians’ snobbery

   Mary Beard

   Why has the Roman practice of manumission – the formal freeing of slaves – received such a bad press? And where did all these slaves come from in the first place?

   

2. For Ruthie Rogers in Venice

   Craig Raine

   A new poem by Craig Raine

   

3. Marie Colvin

   Marie Colvin, the Sunday Times war correspondent who was killed in Syria, was a friend of the TLS and sent the paper a Letter from Kosovo in 1999

   

1. This week

   The Beatles on the cover of the TLS (at last), William Godwin’s kindly good sense, and snobbery about Rome’s ex-slaves – A note from the Editor

Poem of the Week

1. 

   Old Main Street, Holborn Hill, Millom

   By building on local realities, Norman Nicholson achieves a universal vision

Then and Now

1. 

   Then and Now, 1926

   John Middleton Murry

   We look back to a review by John Middleton Murry of The Life of William Godwin by Ford K. Brown