Joan Smith | Unfortunately, She Was a Nymphomaniac
Sat 26 Apr 2025 | 4:00pm - 5:00pm


Join acclaimed campaigner Joan Smith as she sheds new light on the often-overlooked women of Imperial Rome in her ground-breaking book. While these women were among the most privileged in their society, their lives were marked by suffering, including child marriage, marital rape, exile, and even murder. Until now, their stories have been shaped by emperors and chroniclers who painted them as murderers and nymphomaniacs—images largely reflective of the misogyny of the time and amplified by later works like I, Claudius.
Drawing on her years of campaigning against domestic and sexual violence, Smith offers a fresh perspective, uncovering a history of resistance against male authority. She revisits the original Roman texts to tell the true stories of these women—wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters of the first five Roman emperors—whose lives of spirited, inspiring, and sometimes reckless defiance were tragically erased or distorted.
Don’t miss the chance to hear Joan Smith discuss how she has unearthed a new narrative of these women’s courage and resilience, challenging centuries of misrepresentation.
Venue: Old Divinity School
Duration: 1 hour
Choose your tickets:
Author Biography
Joan Smith is an author and journalist. She has written columns for most national newspapers and reviews crime fiction for the Sunday Times. One of her earliest successes was the feminist classic Misogynies, and two of her novels were made into films by the BBC. She was Co-chair of the Mayor of London’s Violence Against Women and Girls Board from 2013 to 2021. Her book Home Grown drew on that experience, revealing the links between domestic violence and terrorism. She has also worked extensively on free speech, chairing an English PEN committee that campaigned on behalf of imprisoned writers, and advising the UK Foreign Office on free expression.
Chair Biography