Stella Duffy rides Theodora to victory at Cheltenham

At Cheltenham literature festival last week, a fine crowd turned out at the delightful Frank Matcham-designed Everyman theatre to hear Bettany Hughes, Stella Duffy and Lucy Hughes-Hallett debate which heroine of the classical world was the most powerful, influential and just plain fabulous: Helen of Troy, Theodora or Cleopatra? Duffy, championing the sixth-century Theodora, was the runaway winner with her rags-to-riches story. Penniless, Theodora became a child comic actor and prostitute in Byzantium with a racy repertoire of sexy acts (at least according to the rather hostile historian of the period, Procopius) before marrying the future emperor, Justinian. Duffy fictionalised the story for her highly enjoyable novel Theodora, which takes the story up to her coronation. Duffy promises that a sequel is in the offing.