Homer’s Iliad is one of the greatest stories ever told, and yet for those of us who don’t read Greek there can sometimes be something a little unsatisfying about the translations. Either they are archaic, or try to conform to a constricting poetic form, or else they are prose translations that lack the spark that you feel the original could contain.

But by far the best version of the Iliad that I have ever come across is Christopher Logue’s version. I say ‘version’ and not ‘translation’ because it’s not a straight translation. He’s moved certain episodes around, taken liberties with the plot in one or two places and uses crashing anachronisms. He has also, after over 20 years, only covered a portion of the tale. In 1981 he published War Music, and followed it with Kings in 1991 and The Husbands in 1994. These three were later republished in a single volume entitled War Music, which is the title for the ongoing work. All Day Permanent Red, in 2003, took us up to the f early battle scenes.

Given the current rate of production and Logue’s advancing years, it is more than likely the whole of Homer’s work will not receive a treatment from Logue. But what he has done already is remarkable. He brings the tale vividly to life, and finds combinations of words to make us see what is going on, or offers us parallels so that we can understand this ancient world.

As Garry Wills put it in the New York Review of Books, “Logue is brilliant at finding the right equivalents for Homer in our repertoire of poetic wonders … One can hardly keep oneself from singing the lines Logue puts in our mouths as well as our minds.”

Now, I’m a grown-up boy and I hardly ever have to follow the text with my finger when I read a book, but when I read Logue I savour each line and mouth the words to myself to get a better feel for them. I strongly urge anybody who is capable of appreciating poetry to find out Logue’s work and find a quiet place to devour it.