A necessity: My lecture notes. I structure my lectures around readings from the original sources, which are always read by the audience. My ambition is to produce a lecture consisting entirely of readings from the audience and then I could do without notes.

A luxury: My wife.

A memento: I'm not a collector of mementoes or souvenirs.

If only: An unconscious transport from home to the ship as I cannot abide travelling by plane.

• Classicist Peter Jones will be a guest speaker on Swan Hellenic's Islands In the Sun Cruise from Italy to Turkey via Greece departing on August 16.