This book is a fascinating addition to the field of Classical Reception studies. When I began reading it, I thought that it would help me to understand key classical texts in a new way, which it did, but what interested me more was that I learned more about modern society via the lens of the ancient world. Bridges makes the perfectly valid point that Homeric poetry has, for many years now, been used to help throw light upon contemporary society. For example, one area that I was familiar with was the use of the Iliad with Vietnam War veterans, considering whether Achilles might conceivably be viewed as suffering from PTSD. However, what Bridges has decided to explore is an avenue which has not received much scholarly attention thus far: the experiences of the women whose husbands go off to fight and leave them behind.

Bridges was, for many years, a ‘Warrior's Wife’, and this gives her a valuable insight as she can speak from her own personal experiences. It is clear from the topics which she chooses to explore – beginning with the moment of farewell as most famously depicted by Homer in Book 6 between Hector and Andromache – that this book is a real labour of love, and she is able to write movingly about the situations that those left behind find themselves in.

Bridges looks at a range of themed areas including the sacrifices which warriors’ wives are expected to make, infidelity and reunions and each theme is represented by specific ancient examples compared with more modern media. One area that I found particularly compelling was the section on infidelity. It is noted that there was in the ancient world, as there still is today, a striking double standard in the behaviour expected of warriors and their wives. For example, Odysseus’ infidelities pass without judgement despite the poet's obsession with Penelope's virtue. There is still stigma attached to wives who commit adultery on their male spouses today – but not the other way around. Bridges provides examples of how modern military culture often even encourages infidelity amongst troops on deployment.

Readers will need a grounding in the ancient material being discussed – but much of this is quite mainstream and well known – Andromache and Hector's parting in Book 6 of the Iliad or Clytemnestra's murder of her husband and Penelope's fidelity for example. There are lots of interesting insights into the ancient texts themselves with useful points of analysis, but I enjoyed the comparison of these with more modern evidence- such as testimonies from women whose husbands had been killed in modern conflict. It becomes clear that, in some ways, the ancient world is truly in the past and yet in other ways little has changed. Humanity is essentially similar even though societies and social norms have changed markedly. Bridges uses lots of excerpts from modern poetry and literature to illustrate points effectively that would otherwise feel very anecdotal.

What I enjoyed is that this book encouraged me to think that there is no fixed interpretation of classical texts such as the Odyssey. It is entirely possible to find new areas of interest in an old story by applying different filters. For example, it is taken for granted that Penelope is the archetypal loyal wife waiting for Odysseus’ return. Traditionally Penelope has been viewed through the lens of who she is to Odysseus. However, by considering the experiences of 20th and 21th century wives enduring the uncertainties and stresses of the absence of a loved one at war, this allows us a greater insight into Penelope's identity than the original source material alone can give us, with its focus on women in terms of how they intersect with the male characters.

I also feel like I learned a lot about the experiences of modern military wives, something I had never before particularly considered. Especially moving were the accounts of the perpetual sense of uncertainty that these women are living in – described by psychologists as ‘ambiguous loss’. As Bridges puts it so compellingly, ‘the Penelopes will still wait and wonder whether their absent warriors will return home alive’. She encourages us to realise that male narratives still dominate when it comes to war and that it is important to seek out the stories of those who are so often sidelined. This might be an interesting book for able sixth form students, particularly those pursuing an Extended Project Qualification / EPQ or planning on applying for Classical subjects at university.