The Double Tongue Introduced by Bettany Hughes

<p><b>Meet the Oracle of Delphi in ancient Greece in this transporting tale of the classical world by the radical Nobel Laureate and author of <i>Lord of the Flies,</i> introduced by Bettany Hughes.</b><br> <b><i><br> Did I believe in what I was doing? Or rather, since I was doing nothing, did I believe in what someone, something was doing to me?</i></b><br> <br> It begins with the half-burnt fish, miraculously restored to life, and the healing of the ill child.<br> <br> Young Arieka is an unloved misfit, but as rumours of her spiritual powers reach the High Priest of Apollo, her life is transformed. She is taken to Delphi to become a Pythia: a mouthpiece for the god Apollo, an oracle uttering riddling prophecies from a smoky cave to frenzied crowds.<br> <br> But when this role is dramatically thrust upon her, the priestess must navigate political conspiracy and the threat of the Romans to preserve her belief - and sanity.<br> <br> <b>'A remarkable work ... A compelling storyteller as well as a clear-eyed philosopher of the dangerous puzzles of being human.'</b> <i>The Timesx</i><br> <br> <b>'A marvellously apt surprise ... Will excite, tantalize and enthral Golding devotees.'</b> <i>Sunday Times</i><br> <br> <b>'Most brilliantly and hair-raisingly evoked.'</b> <i>Sunday Telegraph</i><br> <br> 'A <b>wonderful</b> central character. The story stretches out as clean and dry and clear as the beach in <i>Lord of the Flies</i>.' <i>Independent</i></p>