Hated as a foreigner, despised as a woman, I became First Lady of Athens Aspasia falls passionately in love with Pericles, the leading statesman of Fifth Century Athens. Artists, writers and thinkers frequent her salon. She hides her past as a sex-worker, trafficked to the city, and becomes Pericles’ lover. Her writings attract the attention of Socrates, and she becomes the only woman to join his circle. She is known throughout the city for her beauty and wit and strives to become recognised as an intellectual alongside men. Pericles’ enemies attack him through Aspasia and charge her with blasphemy. As a foreigner she faces execution, but her impassioned address to the jury shames the city and saves her. Pericles is spellbound, they marry, and she becomes First Lady of Athens. Sparta besieges the city; plague breaks out and Pericles is once again in danger. The Immigrant Queen tells the true story of how Aspasia rose to become the First Lady of Athens and triumphed against all the odds.
