back let's finish with some of the back pages. a lot of the papers looking at the tributes and prayers that are being said for sir alex ferguson, who has had to have emergency surgery who has had to have emergency surgery for a brain haemorrhage. after a ll surgery for a brain haemorrhage. after all the rivalry, the fierce rivalry between football clubs been put to one side by the football community? yeah. i'm not somebody who follows football but i know who sir alex ferguson is, and that tells you everything about the role he has in our national identity. it is touching to see people who are rivals coming together and wishing him all the best. it has got us talking about his immense achievement over that long period where he built not one but three amazing different teams at manchester united 7 amazing different teams at manchester united ?|i amazing different teams at manchester united? i think we see managers moving around so often these days, that when sir, he is up there with sir matt busby and bill shankly, and it was particularly poignant today because we had arsene

wenger‘s last game. their rivalry was the making of both of them, particularly in the late 90s when arsene wenger turned up from japan and shocked the football world. he is saying goodbye after the end of an era. he took time out of his day—to—day to make particular mention of his great rival. we shouldn't forget these two were proper titans, great different styles. the stuff films will get made of. it is a sad day but we send our best. absolutely. still seriously ill but obviously getting immense care in hospital. you'll both be back at half 11, for another look at the stories making the news tomorrow. coming up next, it's meet the author. how can a writer make us care about a creature from greek mythology born of the gods asa it's a challenge for any novelist.

madeline miller did it first with achilles, now she tells the story of the great sorceress and enchantress, circe, who leads us through many of the great stories of mythology, behaving badly — which she so often did — but at the same time emerging as a figure with human qualities, including of course vulnerability, who will win many readers‘ sympathy because she is an individual trying to make sense of a very troubled world. welcome. what is the trick in humanising an immortal nymph like circe? well, i think i've always found that these ancient myths really resonate with un—human nature,

in that they are very timeless in what they are looking at, and i absolutely felt that as i was approaching circe. here she is. yes, she's a goddess, yes, she is a nymph, but she lives in a world where she is the pawn of much more powerful people than herself, and she's on the receiving end. she doesn't have a lot of control initially over what she can do with her life and where she can go, and i think we can all relate to feeling in the grip of larger powers than ourselves. nonetheless, you have to bring them to life. they've got to be something more than statues in a museum, and if we're going to meet odysseus and prometheus and all these people, who've got more than walk—on parts in the story, they need to come off the wall, don't they? absolutely, and one of the things i love about the ancient myths is that, when we talk about these greek heroes, we use the word hero today to talk about someone who often is a moral exemplar. the ancient greek heroes were not moral exemplars at all.

they were very complex, they had huge strengths and also huge faults, and so i really wanted to honour that in all of the characters — particularly circe — to make her a person that is three—dimensional, complex, with those flaws and strengths, as well. and of course you turn her into a figure who still has the powers, immortality and the ability to turn people into pigs and other things if she wants to and doesn't like them, which she uses, but you give her a humanity. it's a dangerous game. you know, she changes nappies. you are a high school classics teacher by trade. do you ever think, i'm letting this side down? i certainly have worried about the classics police and getting kicked out of the classics club, but i think that most classicists agree that these stories live because they are retold, and they have been retold so many times over the years, in so many contradictory

ways, and that's why they are still with us. and it's no accident that they've been told, because they are fundamental stories. folk myths, same thing. exactly. and i think that there is no such thing as an objective, definitive version of a myth. i think they invite us in to retell them. so, what about her? what sort of person do you think she becomes in your hands? well, i wanted her to be a character who is really forged by being downtrodden very early on in her life, and i think sometimes that can drive people towards then treading on others, but i think it can also draw great empathy and pity for others, and i think that's the way circe goes. and the downtrodden nature that you reveal is very much connected with herfemininity. yes. this is a world, the ancient greek mythological world is a world that's not kind to women at all. it is not kind to a lot of people, men and women, but in particular, as a woman, and one of these

lower—level nymphs, you are prey. i would not suggest for a second that this is a tract or a great political statement, but it's undoubtedly a book deeply informed by a feminist perspective in the world, isn't it? yes, i really wanted to take this female character and put her at the centre of her own epic. women have traditionally not been the subject of epics. their lives have not been seen as important enough for an epic, and so just as odysseus gets his epic i wanted this to be her epicjourney. and in a way, the humanizing of these mythological figures has to do with the revelation of her, what do we call them, psychological struggles or something? that is, to come back to the very beginning of our conversation, that is the trick. that's what makes her tick. and, for me, that always comes originally with asking questions. so, the great mystery of circe is why is she turning men into pigs? how do you come to that

point in your life? homer does not tell us, odysseus never asks her, and so i think it's really ripe for exploration. i don't believe that people do things just because, or on a whim, i think people have reasons for what they do. and what is your explanation in her character? without giving too much away... indeed, yes. but i think she feels very betrayed and assaulted and abused, at one point, and she lashes out in response to that. so, really, it's vengeance, for her. the ancient world is very, very distant now for people. notjust because of the timeline, but because it's sort of slipping away. the days when children went to school and many of them learnt latin as just the inevitable thing, have long gone. there is great enthusiasm for the classics in many schools, of course, teachers are determined to keep them alive, but it's

a changed day, isn't it? it is changing. although as a high school teacher myself, one thing that i'm always struck by is, when i do get children in the classroom, and i do start talking about the myths, they are immediately gripped. i think these stories are so exciting and filled with huge emotions and things that they can identify with, that i think if you can give myths the chance, that children will run towards them. do you see yourself as some kind of classics evangelist here? chuckling. i know you are writing a work of fiction and of the imagination in a way, but you are doing more than that. you are saying, look, here are great stories and i'm trying to breathe a particular kind of new life and shed some new light on them. it's always really exciting to me whenever someone comes and says, i read your book, and it made me go back to homer. that is, for me, the ultimate compliment. i want these novels to be for everyone. but with circe, you made the point earlier that there's so much that isn't explained,

that you've got the gift of the unknown to play with. yes, and as it turns out, she has this whole wonderful back story that has absolutely nothing to do with odysseus. she is the aunt of the minotaur, daughter of the sun god helios, she has a connection to prometheus, she's his cousin and all of these... you've got the wildest way of sort of bringing everybody in. like some huge cast of a broadway musical. they are all there. if you have the opportunity to write a minotaur birth scene i feel you have to take it. absolutely. it's interesting, this struggle between somebody who is in touch with the world of the gods, in the ancient conception, and the world of humanity. it's the kind of thing that wagner struggled with in the ring. how do you make this connection work? it is a big thing to take on. that really comes right out of homer, that he has

this beautiful detail about her that she is the dread goddess who speaks like a human, and so i think naturally she is that bridge. she has a sort of foot in each world. and that is the curse, of course? yes, yes. i mean if you are just one thing or the other, you get on with it, but if you are stuck transporting yourself between these two worlds of a human understanding and the kind of eternal life of the gods, how do you handle it? as you say, it is kind of a curse, because it means that you never fully belong anywhere, but it also gives you a very interesting perspective on each of those things. you can stand back and kind of come to see them for their faults, and their strengths, as well. you don't belong anywhere, but nonetheless in your conception of her, you have a life that is, in its own bizarre way, very enriching. yes. one of the major themes of the odyssey is odysseus has this intense longing for home, and he wants to find his home in ithaca. it is a journey.

yes, it is. and i wanted her to have that same sense of searching for home, except she has to create that home. she has to make it for herself. and does she do it? she does. madeline miller, author of circe, thank you very much. thank you so much for having me. hello there. another cracking day across hello there. another cracking day a cross m ost hello there. another cracking day across most of the uk. top temperature of 26 celsius in north hold in the north—west of london. lots of weather watchers pictures coming through of unbroken blue skies. not sunny everywhere. parts of the north and west of scotland so thick cloud, outbreaks of rain and a fair old breeze. it is all courtesy of this weather front which were brushed —— brushed past the

north—west of the country through the night and first thing on bank holiday monday. there will be some low cloud and missed again on irish sea coasts. —— mist. for most, a dry and clear one. temperatures falling into mid single figures in eastern england. most towns and cities no lower than nine to 12. we start bank holiday monday on a dry, bright note. temperatures rising quickly. very warm across england and wales through the afternoon. more cloud in the north—west of. mist untied affecting irish sea coasts. very warm. 27, 20 eight celsius likely to bea warm. 27, 20 eight celsius likely to be a high. a weather —— record—brea ker. temperatures will start to fall across northern and western areas in particular on tuesday. outbreaks of rain across

northern ireland and scotland, maybe into north—west england and western wales. the sky is bright enough northern ireland later, but eastern england will get another sunny and warm day. 26, 20 seven celsius. the cooler you can see associated with this next area of low pressure will continue to make inroads across the country. this weather front will have more energy. it will bring outbreaks of heavy rain to northern ireland initially, then into western parts of britain as the day wears on through wednesday. quite windy as well, particularly around hills and coasts. across the east, particularly the south—east, we could hold onto warm weather. temperatures around 20 degrees with the best of the sunshine. the general trend is as the week continues, it will start to cool down from the west. some rain at times. the best of the sunshine in the south and east. this is bbc news. the headlines: divisions in the conservative party after the business secretary insists the idea of a "customers partnership" with the eu is still on the table.

messages of support for the former manchester united boss sir alex ferguson, as he recovers from a brain haemorrhage. a 17—year—old boy is shot dead in south london. his mother appeals for an end to the violence in the capital this year. make my son will be the last and be an example to everyone. just let it stop. and that story features in a number of tomorrow's newspapers, including the daily express — which calls it a bloodbath on our streets. we'll be reviewing all the papers in half an hour.