Mary Beard is a professor of classics at Newnham College, Cambridge, and the classics editor of the TLS. She has world-wide academic acclaim, and is a fellow of the British Academy and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science Her previous books include the best-selling, Wolfson Prize-winning Pompeii, The Roman Triumph and The Parthenon (in the Wonders of the World series of which she is general editor). Her TLS blog has been collected in the books It's a Don's Life [9781846682513] and All in a Don's Day [9781846685361].
She's pulled off that rare trick of becoming a don with a high media profile who hasn't sold out, who is absolutely respected by the academy for her scholarship ... what she says is always powerful and interesting Guardian She stands in the great tradition of myth-puncturing Latin classicists New York Review of Books Beard is a very funny and penetrating commentator ... and has a fantastic knack for controversy. If they'd had Mary Beard on their side back then, the Romans would still have their empire Daily Mail Professor Beard ... combines erudition with charm, wit and warmth in a way that's rare in academia. -- Rowan Pelling Telegraph Beard is the best...communicator of Classics we have Independent on Sunday witty, erudite collection...To Beard, the classical past is alive and kicking - and she has the great gift of being able to show just why classics is still a subject worth arguing about Sunday Times highly engaging Sunday Telegraph With such a champion as Beard to debunk and popularise, the future of the study of classics is assured Daily Telegraph sparkling The Lady so engaging, and at times so very funny -- Edith Hall Times this is the perfect introduction to classical studies, and deserves to become something of a standard work in the future Observer an irrepressible enthusiast with a refreshing disregard for convention FT