History's WONDER WOMAN

With superhuman powers possibly gifted by the Greek gods, Dr Janina Ramirez is returning to Gloucester this month to bring a series of events celebrating our diverse and fascinating history

- Candia McKormack

There’s no getting away from it, the coronavirus sucks like an empty Dyson. You don’t need me to tell you that. But, in the spirit of art historian Dr Janina Ramirez – the gloriously, contagiously, fabulously eternal optimist – there is always a flip side. While physical festivals and lectures have been put on hold since March, Janina has been bringing us a stream of virtual talks via YouTube, BBC iPlayer and other online sites. And they’ve been brilliant: enlightening, entertaining talks on subjects such as art history, ritual objects and goddesses, brought straight to our sofas.

As social distancing’s still a ‘thing’, Janina and I are using that other technological saviour, Zoom, to catch up... and I almost, almost feel like I’m with her in the sunshine of her beautiful Oxfordshire garden.

Janina – known to most simply as ‘Nina’ – is a force of nature, and what a force. Recently celebrating her 40th birthday, she has packed an astonishing amount into those years.