Favourite Classical Myth Retellings | with My Sister Mim | December 2023

A delightful extra video this week that i hope you enjoy watching as much as I enjoyed filming. Inspired by a book I had managed to get which was a big part of both our childhoods, I filmed this with my little sister Mim when she came to stay… all about some of her favourite classical myth retellings as Mum is not the only classicist in the family. We have a right bookish natter and I have some books to move swiftly up the TBR and Mim has one she is desperate to get! #BookTube #ClassicalMythRetelling #MythsAndLegends
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Books Mentioned…
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
Circe by Madeline Miller
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
Wake Siren by Nina MacLaughlin
Ariadne by Jennifer Saint
Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati
Me Elsewhere…
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[@MJ-in-Canada]

More Mim! More Mim! Is it possible to squeeze you (Simon) and Mim and your Mum onto the couch for an episode? I’ll bring popcorn.🍿

[@SavidgeReads]

I’m sure we could do something together, if we’re all ever in the same space where we can film.

[@katealtavilla7299]

I really loved this Simon. Your mum raised really lovely, clever kids. I bet she’s dead proud of you all ❤

[@SavidgeReads]

Awwww thank you so much. That’s such a kind thing to say.

[@kitthereader]

Absolutely looooooved this. Definitely a beginner to myth retellings so found this so helpful and interesting.

[@SavidgeReads]

Sooooo pleased that you enjoyed it! Hope you find some corking books from Mim's selection.

[@hegeste]

Wanna read classical retellings for my kids now! More Mim please!

[@SavidgeReads]

Shall see what we can do 😉

[@elaineray245]

Lovely video and lovely to meet your sister

[@SavidgeReads]

So pleased you enjoyed it and meeting Mim.

[@jamgart6880]

I don’t want to be plugging another channel but as someone who wants to watch and take in loads of classics content, there’s another book tuber called Jean Menzies (can’t remember her @ off the top of my head) She is also a classics girl, I believe she just got her PhD this year actually. But I found out this week she also does a podcast and I started watching them yesterday. The second episode is an interview with Madeline Miller who wrote Circe, so that might be interesting for you all to watch? It was very good 😊 Edit: forgot to tell you the podcast name! It’s ’That’s Ancient History’ with the lovely Jean Menzies

[@SavidgeReads]

I love Jean. I have met her a few times and she’s a delight. I saw the podcast is coming back, thrilled. She once bumped into my mum at the British Museum too. A small world, though with two classicists also the perfect place to bump into one another. Lol

[@jamgart6880]

@@SavidgeReads very true! lol. I’m so pleased you all know each other! I don’t know why that’s made me so happy, it’s like I’ve been let in on a behind-the-scenes secret. The Secret Lives of Booktubers maybe? 🤔 😁

[@susprime7018]

Loved the Illiad and the Song of Achilles, loved Mim's classical style earrings and I have had Ariadne in the stack for a long time. Simon, I Am An Island, oh goodness, that would have made a good myth, unfortunately not just a myth, those two trespassers needed a buckshot in the posterior warm Texas welcome. Yes to more videos.

[@SavidgeReads]

The trespassers? What do you mean?

[@susprime7018]

@@SavidgeReads The two guys who approached her in her own field and made rude comments and squeezed her hand in greeting until it hurt, if you want to be naked on your own property sunbathing out in your own field that is your right without being accosted by trespassers, that is early in the book, the whole episode was creepy, in fact that is a common theme so far through out the book, she just got accosted again at the sheep sale by another yahoo inbred, creepy. The first event might be difficult to prove as assault, but in my opinion, the one at the sheep sale would not, especially if you could find a witness not related to the perpetrator, granted, probably not possible. Don't get me started on Rab.🤔

[@alliebeesreading]

More Mim, please! Or she could go the Louise Savidge route and start her own channel 😁 I’d watch!

[@SavidgeReads]

Hahaha. I’m not sure there will be a Mim channel coming, there may be Mim on Mum’s channel at some point… though I could just be starting a rumour. Lol.

[@jackiesliterarycorner]

Mim is a delight. We need more from her. As someone who is Filipino on my mother's side I want to see more of those myths from Philippines, though I also need to read more of them as well.

[@SavidgeReads]

Ooh I would be super interested in recommendations from more myths around the world. I didn’t ask that at the end of this and I should have. It’s a whole world of wonderful myths I bet.

[@jackiesliterarycorner]

Earlier this year I purchased the Penguin edition of all three volumes of Arabian Nights and a retelling of Ramayana. I feel there’s a lot myths we get retellings of but others we don’t. Like we get a lot of Greek retellings and Norse has been popularized by Marvel/MCU having the Thor comics. I will be reading the Prose Edda soon. Like I said, I don’t about the Philippines and it’s part of my background.

[@lesleybradley9370]

Absolutely brilliant vlog your sister is lovely and so like your lovely mum. More definitely please❤

[@SavidgeReads]

She is very like her isn’t she. The genes are strong in that one.

[@zoobee]

the classical myths are so infinitely re-tellable. I love this genre where the ancient stories are re-intepreted. they become living breathing things and relevant to our age, and there are so many stories and myths and ways they can be re-written. I guess that is why they are so powerful and eternal. and there is something profound about a dialogue across modernity and antiquity, stories relevant across thousands of years

[@SavidgeReads]

I concur with lots and lots of this. You’ve put many of my thoughts into words I couldn’t quite express… though I do worry maybe they’re at a peak!

[@nataliaweissfeld7478]

Yes! Definitely more Mim! She is cool and adorable and knowledgeable ❤

[@SavidgeReads]

She’s fab. Very lucky to have her as my sister.

[@SavidgeReads]

She’s fab. Very lucky to have her as my sister.

[@wendyryan1618]

A Thousand Ships is on my TBR currently, so I'm interested to compare it to Silence of the Girls, which I did like a lot. Barker's really good at depicting the visceral realities of war for those who fight it and those civilians whose lives are destroyed by it. I think I liked that it was a more realistic and less comforting take than some other retellings and maybe truer to the experiences of women in war.

[@SavidgeReads]

I think Barker can definitely write war. I just wish the book had more of a focus of unsilencing the girls which is what it sold itself as being and I don’t think it achieves that. Loads of people have loved it, like Mim, so I am probably in the minority ha.

[@wendyryan1618]

I've seen a lot of people who felt the same as you do, so I don't think you're that much in the minority. Thank goodness we all get different things from books or there'd be nothing to discuss!

[@lindaleehall]

Clytemnestra was just fantastic! She was always my hero. She deserved much better than Agamemnon.

[@SavidgeReads]

She did indeed. Costanza does an amazing job of bringing her to life. Loved it.

[@johannaochbockerna]

When will there be a program with all three Savidges? Loved this video as I do with all of the one with you and Louise. Imagine you, Louise and Mim talking books for an hour each week.

[@SavidgeReads]

Hahaha. I don’t know if the three of us could cope with that, let alone the viewing world. Mum and I might just be working on our first thing together next year and we’re being very aware that sometimes working with family can go awry. Hahaha.

[@leeh4343]

I have just remembered an Indian myth retelling that was fabulous - Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel 😊 and of course more Miriam!

[@SavidgeReads]

Oooh thanks for the recommendation, I’ll look that up. Fingers crossed Mim will be back!

[@angelaking9619]

Ditto on this recommendation. Asexual rep as well!

[@MB-hc9tk]

Awh loved this ❤ and you weren’t lying your sister is sooo like your mom! Definitely would agree that mim should come back again for a video in the near future , it’s lovely to see that sibling love (or rivalry) 😂

[@SavidgeReads]

She is literally ‘mini mum’ it’s quite disconcerting. And sort of lovely. Ha. Glad you enjoyed the video.

[@mradcaqbdb]

Absolutely delightful! More Mim on the channel! ❤️ A question for Mim. Is there a particular translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses that she recommends? I think we read a bit of it in high school, but it’s been ages and I would love to check it out again.

[@SavidgeReads]

I’ve asked her. She’s as rubbish as my mother is at replying to texts so it could be a while before I get a response… if any at all hahaha.

[@kathy2539]

More Mirri, please, Simon! You need to do more with her! And you really should do a video with both Mirri and your mother! Thrilling!

[@SavidgeReads]

I’ll see if I can get Mim and Mum in the same place we can film at some point. A goal for 2024.

[@JB-mm4jp]

The Silence of the Girls is brilliant and is the first of a trilogy. The Women of Troy is the second one and the third for which we have been waiting years, will come out in September 2024.

[@SavidgeReads]

I’m glad you enjoyed the first one. I didn’t love it personally, I didn’t loathe it though. Just thought it didn’t deliver on its promise. That could have been a hype/PR thing though.

[@jesssmith1352]

Loved this so much! Lovely to meet you Mim!

[@SavidgeReads]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@karenmiddlebrook5069]

Scylla and Charybdis, would those be the monsters? Loved Circe, and Clytmenestra. Here the world, entire I recommend. I wanted to love Pandora's Jar but have high hopes for Divine Might. Loved A thousand ships and Stone Blind. I'm here for the reclaiming of Medusa as victim not monster. Medea, ugh! Watched a horrid play at university all creepy music and masks... I'd never heard of Classics at my inner city comp in the late 80s, so came to it late when I had to teach the Odyssey. The rest is history 🤣 pun intended.

[@SavidgeReads]

Those would indeed be those monsters. I was trying so hard to remember the book they were in that I forgot to elaborate. Ha.

[@cecilialau_]

This was an absolute joy. Thank you. Loved, loved, loved. I could have listened for ages

[@SavidgeReads]

Awww thank you. So pleased you enjoyed it!

[@stephanierenee7655]

I just read Ariadne last month and it is one of my favorite books of the year. I loved the story so much and the ending was really beautiful. Also, Circe is one of my favorite books of all time. It's a book that I think about more than any other book and I constantly want to reread it!

[@SavidgeReads]

Circe has so much love, it’s so lovely to see. It’s a corker. I wonder if I love Song of Achilles just a little bit more than it because I read it first and because it was *the* book that got me back into classical myth retellings? I must read Ariadne it seems.

[@bethmw28]

I'm also in the really really REALLY need to read Ariadne club! It'll be the next book I buy I think 👌 Circe is in my top 5 favourite books of all time 🥰

[@nicolastawiarski7958]

Loved this video with you and Mim … just joyful 💞

[@SavidgeReads]

Soooo pleased that you enjoyed it!

[@tanyam6197]

Delightful ❤

[@SavidgeReads]

Thank you!

[@lottehoughton648]

I think that Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood would be good entry level myth retelling 😊

[@SavidgeReads]

Oooh that’s one I haven’t read. It’s on my shelves. I wonder if Miriam has read it? I know Mum has.

[@enidlacob1157]

Fab Let’s see Louise with both of you That would be a treat

[@SavidgeReads]

Hahaha. I shall make it a goal for 2024. Will need a bigger sofa when I revamp the library. Hahaha.

[@sallyandbooks545]

Such a brilliant video with your sister. Would love to see more of her in your videos ❤👍🏼❤👍🏼

[@SavidgeReads]

Awwww thanks Sally. I am sure she will be back.

[@Georgesmomsu]

We need more Mim! This was such a delightful video. I love your banter. I almost skipped it because I know almost nothing about myths and the classics. I’m so glad I didn’t. Looking forward to reading all of these.

[@SavidgeReads]

I’m so glad you didn’t skip it and glad that you enjoyed it.

[@mariasmiles68]

What a treat! Your sister is beautiful! More conversations with Mim would be lovely. What a fun/interesting conversation. The Sunny's sweater is 🔥.

[@SavidgeReads]

So pleased you enjoyed it. I’m very lucky to have such a fab lovely little sister.

[@chrissiepenguinful]

I was so comforted by Mim's accent the whole time! Midlands

[@SavidgeReads]

Hahaha. She has her father’s lilt.

[@leeh4343]

Loved the banter between the two of you! Put a big smile on my face 😊. I preferred Circe to SOA but then I read SoA on plane which I find always skews my thoughts on a book - maybe it deserves a reread at some point.

[@SavidgeReads]

Oooh interesting about plane reads. I think I read them harder because I’m so focused on not thinking about being in a tin can in the air. Hahaha.

[@kathleenwalsh3556]

Hi Simon n Mim. Sooooo interesting, reminiscent, inspiring and fun. Such good questions, such thoughtful, knowledgeable answers. Def. going to follow up on yr recommendations.

[@SavidgeReads]

Sooooo pleas you enjoyed it Kathleen.

[@shannonmoreau2531]

Recently read Circe on Libby and then had to go get the paperback at Barnes & Noble. Which was the same day this video dropped! A modern setting book based on a Greek myth that I read this year is The Latinist, referencing Apollo and Daphne. Loved this video with Mim!

[@SavidgeReads]

Oooh haven’t heard of The Latinist, will have to look it up!

[@emmavd]

Thanks, Simon and Miriam!🌷A contemporary novel set in London, in the US and at the IS headquarters in Raqqa, inspired by Sophocles’s Antigone, is Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie. She won the Women’s Prize for it some years ago. I’ve read it only this year and it’s among my favourites of 2023. It would be great to see Miriam again on your channel, Simon!😊

[@SavidgeReads]

I’ve read Home Fire, I’m not sure if Mim has. I know Mum has. We will definitely do a video on classic myth retellings set in contemporary times, which I think we teased at the end of this video. It’s a great book. I’m a fan of quite a few of her novels.

[@emmavd]

@@SavidgeReads Hi Simon😊I’m already looking forward to it!

[@fozzymup268]

Yes, absolutely, more of lovely Mim! As to a retelling, I think Calypso would be a good one. ❤

[@SavidgeReads]

Oooh that would be a good one.

[@taneesewilson8844]

Thankyou for this Simon and hello to Miriam. 😊You both have a nice and knowledgeable energy when you talk about literature. I’ve never read any classical myth retellings and appreciate you talking in depth about them. 📚I have NH on my tbr and now want to add Ariadne and Persephone as well if I can find a copy. The Return of the Gods exhibition looked awesome from your Instagram pics Simon and hope it’s a worldwide one. Those sculptures! ….just sayin’😁 And It’s a yes to Mim joining you in another video one day soon. She did great!

[@SavidgeReads]

I hope you enjoy the Natalie Haynes. I think I need to read Ariadne soon too. Maybe that’s a book for Patreon Book Club. Ooooh there’s an idea. I think that The Return of the Gods is just for the World Museum here in Liverpool as it uses all the statues and artefacts from the Liverpool museums and art galleries, of which we have many, the most museums in the uk outside London!

[@cindyhaiken5644]

Wow this was fun. Mim reminds me of Louise in so many ways and of you too Simon. Family genes are amazing! The sequel to The Silence of the Girls is The Women of Troy, and I liked that one much more. Just saying. Circe is an absolutely gem. I’m reading Emily Wilson‘s Iliad and it’s amazing. Planning on reading her Odyssey in January. More please!

[@SavidgeReads]

Women of Troy, that’s the one. I need to check if I still have it on my shelves actually. I feel like it could have been culled… and given to Mum. Ha. Mim and I have a very similar sense of humour which I find odd (as I never thought that would be genetic) and brilliant too. Love spending time with her. I need to read both of Watson’s translations. I have one on the shelves. Maybe 2024 will see a Mim, Mum and Simon video, we shall see 😉

[@cindyhaiken5644]

@@SavidgeReads A Mim, Mum and Simon video??? The Internet may explode!

[@petrapaliskova6077]

Loved the video and your sister! 😊 She should check out Rachel Cusk's retelling of Medea, it is a play so should be pretty unique❤

[@SavidgeReads]

Ooh good call. I have meant to get it for Mum since Benjamin over at Benjamin’s Journal read and raved about it.

[@jackymiddleton2730]

Loved it! We defo want to see Mim back for another….. or perhaps a channel of her own???? 😊

[@SavidgeReads]

Hahaha. Maybe. Though it wouldn’t be another Savidge channel. She has a different surname to mum and I.

[@jackymiddleton2730]

@@SavidgeReadskeep it in the family as they say😂 also can’t believe how much Mim looks like your mum!

[@shawkitty2524]

Mim looks and sounds just like Louise and has some of hr mannerisms! Nice to meet her!

[@SavidgeReads]

Hahahaha. We do call Mim ‘mini Mum’.

[@rebecca.reader]

Mim is fabulous!!! She is very like your mother. Thank you both! Also... She should start her own channel!!!😜

[@shawkitty2524]

@@SavidgeReads LOL--then I nailed it! Have her on as a guest anytime!

[@elelittle1474]

I think there's a Lilith retelling out, also Morgan (le fay). I'd personally love some Mesopotamian retellings and possible Russian. Babayaga would be amazing. More Mim please! Really enjoyed her contributions and energy ❤

[@SavidgeReads]

Canongate definitely published a Babayaga retelling, it was in translation but can’t remember the author… or the title. It had Babayaga in it. Not very helpful sorry.

[@readingbytheriver5752]

Simon - you sister is a delight and so like your Mom. I'd like to see all of you together. Also your mom & sister together.

[@SavidgeReads]

I’ll put a request in for a trio video. We don’t get together in places we can film much but I’ll make it a goal for 2024. Hehehe.

[@fernandamurari8577]

Your sister is lovely!!!

[@SavidgeReads]

Thank you, I think so too 😉

[@t2piline]

What a lovely video ❤ Thank You! I like to have a other way around book rec.. What book(s) would you say one should read to get the basic knowledge of myths them selves? Like whos who and whats what and so on? Like kind of overview of all... Thanks ❤😊 Elin

[@SavidgeReads]

I would suggest you try Stephen Fry’s Mythos. If Mim and I had talked about non fiction books I can almost guarantee that’s what we would have talked about first.

[@t2piline]

@@SavidgeReads Thanks. I will look it up 📚

[@kirstenlee7575]

More Mim please!

[@SavidgeReads]

I’ll see what I can do!

[@bethmw28]

If someone described me as "classics and sex" I'd never recover from the joy 😂😂😂

[@SavidgeReads]

Hahahaha. I almost put it in my bio! Hahaha.

[@bethmw28]

​@@SavidgeReadsI'm not surprised, it's a glorious description! 👌

[@Beatts113]

More Mim!!

[@SavidgeReads]

Hahaha. We shall see what we can do!

[@spexi513]

I could turn pages but idk if I could wipe my 🍑. I miss having nails , can’t bc of my job 😭 Blahdiggityblah, Ty for introducing your sister ( you maybe have before, but this is the first time I’ve seen her on here ) ; y’all are family goals 📖🪱💚

[@SavidgeReads]

Not sure I needed that visual first thing in the morning 🍑😬 Pleasure to bring Mim on the channel she’s a ray of light in my life which I’m very lucky to have.

[@spexi513]

Touché. I cannot refrain from thinking that every time I see longgg nails , but I COULD refrain from saying it 😳. Heartwarming how you feel about your sister & I am fortunate to feel the same way about my own . Blahdiggityblah ty for responding 💚

[@spexi513]

Silence Of The Girls wasn’t one of my favorites either & I felt 💩 about that bc so many ppl loved it. Circe still remains my personal favorite & I’ve read a relative many 📖🪱💚

[@SavidgeReads]

I don’t feel rubbish if I don’t like a book lots of people like… because lots of people like it, so it is getting a lot of love.

[@spexi513]

EXCELLENT PERSPECTIVE and i herby adopt it ! Never thought of it the way, but touché baybay 📖🪱💚

[@curioushmm9027]

yes please more miriam...

[@SavidgeReads]

Haha. I’m thrilled that people have enjoyed her popping on the channel so much.

[@curioushmm9027]

@@SavidgeReads and she reminds me of your mother.

[@EvieM1]

I have a problem with thinking I have to read the original myth before I can read a retelling which I know logically makes no sense.

[@SavidgeReads]

It’s funny what our brains will do to us!