A Case for Classics

There is a photograph of me as an eight-year-old standing on top of the Pont du Gard, the Roman aqueduct not far from Nîmes. I remember feeling both petrified — there were no railings — and awe-struck. Visiting an aunt and uncle who were spending a year living in the south of France was allowing me to indulge my fascination for all things Roman, instilled by obsessive reading of the Asterix books.