Emotional ties with historian Bettany Hughes

Historian Bettany Hughes

Our cat, Cinnamon, came to us as a stray one day, about 13 years ago, and she has become a huge part of the family. We’ve always had animals – guinea pigs, rabbits, mice, stick insects and hedgehogs – all strays, adopted and rescued. We love the sense of nature they bring into our home.

Left: This illustrated book of Greek myths was painted by my maternal aunt Jocelyn Brace in the 1930s. I was surrounded by people drawing as I was growing up. Even now, wherever I travel, I’m always writing and sketching in a notebook. Right: This little Bronze Age figurine always reminds me of the important presence women have had in society since early civilisation and yet it’s hardly documented. As a historian, it’s my job to fill in these gaps.

I love maps – I always have one on me. This one was painted as a gift from a friend after he stayed with us for eight years. It mentions all my family – there’s Isle de Adrian and Bettany, Isle de Sorrel and one for May, even though she hadn’t arrived yet. It’s a wonderful symbol of friendship.

My family’s love of music comes from my dad, actor Peter Hughes. He came from nothing, but through a stroke of luck William Lloyd Webber [Andrew’s father] taught him to play piano and Dad has taught me, my brother Simon and our children. It has forever bonded us as a family.

My daughter May [now 17] painted this picture of a five-legged donkey when she was three. Sorrel, my elder daughter [now 21] made the plate when she was ten. I look at them both and feel lucky they’re mine. It’s liberating to feel like the least important person in my life.

I found this toy gun in a junk shop at the back of the old Spice Bazaar in Istanbul while exploring the city with the girls. I love bringing back objects with interesting histories. Getting this one through customs, however, was another story!

Left: One of my most vivid childhood memories is of sitting around the table, having cups of tea. It’s exactly what I do with my family now. I found this teacup and saucer illustrated by Alfred Meakin in a junk shop in Brighton, when I was working on an ITV programme called Save It in the early 1990s. Right: This gold-painted plaque hung on the royal barge during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant in 2012 – my husband Adrian [Evans] was Pageant Master. Since we married in 1993, he has taught me that no matter how strange and hard life can be, there is always a solution.