Nigel Spivey Views
Faust - an academic nerd who suffered from the itchy syndrome identified by Nigel Spivey as 'cloisterphobia' - begged the Devil to rescue him from obscurity and to satisfy his grosser cravings. These days, diabolical conjuring is not necessary. Faust simply prays for a phone call from the BBC, offering a television series. Celebrity is sure to follow, plus a puffed-up quota of air miles.
Nigel Spivey, the Cambridge classicist who is currently fronting How Art Made the World each Monday on BBC2, is the latest to sign his name in blood. His series relies on visual vagrancy and glossy superficiality to get through its so-called 'history of humankind'. On paper, the endeavour looks shakier, but it begins promisingly. For a while, Spivey - helped out, as he acknowledges, by anthropologists such as David Lewis-Williams and Clifford Geertz - really does seem to be delving into the origins of our unique aptitude for making images.
Dr Nigel Spivey is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he teaches classical art and archaeology. His areas of expertise are the Olympic games and the Etruscans, on which he has written a number of books, including Songs on Bronze: Greek Myths Retold (2005), and Etruscan Art (1997). He has also presented several television documentaries, including How Art Made the World and Digging for Jesus.
Jeremy is an award-winning travel writer and author of Turkey-based travelogues A Fez of the Heart, and Santa: A Life. Other books include The Snakebite Survivorsi’ Club, and The Wreck at Sharpose Point. He is a regular contributor to the travel pages of the Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, Conde Nast Traveller, and numerous other publications. He has presented TV documentaries and is a regular on radio programmes like Radio 4 ’s ‘Excess Baggageh’. He has tutored on numerous residential courses in creative travel writing, and is a charming and witty host with an extensive knowledge of the Turkish coastline. Dr. Nigel Spivey
Nigel Spivey Images
