Rent It's a Don's Life

Synopsis

Britain's best known classicist speaks her mind on the ancient, and modern, worlds.

"You don't have to be interested in Greek urns to get a kick out of reading Mary's blog."—Chris Vallance, BBC Radio 4

"A Don's Life is that rarest of online creatures: a fascinating, well-written, revealing and entertaining blog."—Good Web Guide

"While many scholars build careers through increasingly elaborate reconstructions of the ancient world, [Mary] Beard consistently stresses the limits of our knowledge, the precariousness of our constructs and the ambiguity or contradiction inherent in many of our sources."—New York Times for The Fires of Vesuvius

In her now-famous blog, Mary Beard has made her name as a wickedly subversive commentator on the world in which we live. Her central themes are classics, universities, and teaching, but she covers many other topics:

What are academics for?Who was the first African Roman emperor?Looting, ancient and modern.Are modern exams easier?Keep Lesbos for the Lesbians.Did St. Valenting exist?What made the Romans laugh?

That is just a small tast of this selection (including some of the choicer responses posted) which will inform, occasionally provoke and cannot fail to entertain.

Mary Beard is professor of classics at Cambridge and classics editor at The Times Literary Supplement. Her books include The Fires of Vesuvius, The Roman Triumph, and The Parthenon.

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