​What would it take to be called a heroine? This is the theme of Laura Shepperson’s brilliant, clever, furious book, the story of Phaedra, the Cretan princess brought to Athens as a hostage-bride by the ‘hero’ Theseus, and raped by his son, Hippolytus, in Ancient Greek myth. The story unfolds against the backdrop of Hippolytus’s trial – though it is Phaedra who is truly judged by the men of Athens.