Review
`enjoyable... Beard is an exuberant communicator' --Dinah Birch, Observer
`Whether tackling the Afghan conflict or sexy statues, Cambridge professor Mary Beard's spiky blog has become an internet sensation'
--The Times
`Sharply observed, often hilarious slices of academic life' --Charlotte Higgins, Guardian
`Beard's studies of bygone times are infused with a peppering of wit that is unusual in an academic work'
--Julian Fleming, Sunday Business Post
'Beard remains self-deprecatory, invigoratingly sane and zestful' --Frances Spalding, Independent
'delightful...It has the virtues of brevity, eclecticism and learning worn lightly...' --Sam Leith, Daily Mail
`Beard has a spry, pithy, conversational style... a diverting read' --Edmund Gordon, Sunday Times
"Well-written, in short column-length bursts, it's the thinking person's loo book' --Alastair Mabbott, Glasgow Herald
`Whether tackling the Afghan conflict or sexy statues, Cambridge professor Mary Beard's spiky blog has become an internet sensation'
--The Times
`Sharply observed, often hilarious slices of academic life' --Charlotte Higgins, Guardian
`Beard's studies of bygone times are infused with a peppering of wit that is unusual in an academic work'
--Julian Fleming, Sunday Business Post
'Beard remains self-deprecatory, invigoratingly sane and zestful' --Frances Spalding, Independent
'delightful...It has the virtues of brevity, eclecticism and learning worn lightly...' --Sam Leith, Daily Mail
`Beard has a spry, pithy, conversational style... a diverting read' --Edmund Gordon, Sunday Times
"Well-written, in short column-length bursts, it's the thinking person's loo book' --Alastair Mabbott, Glasgow Herald
Book Description
Britain's best known classicist speaks her mind on the ancient, and modern, worlds. A wide-ranging selection from her 'best hit' blog.
Product Description
Mary Beard's by now famous blog A Don's Life has been running on the TLS website for nearly three years. In it she has made her name as a wickedly subversive commentator on the world in which we live. Her central themes are the classics, universities and teaching - and much else besides. 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 Valentine exist? What made the Romans laugh? That is just a small taste of this selection (and some of the choicer responses) which will inform, occasionally provoke and cannot fail to entertain.
About the Author
Mary Beard is a professor of classics at Newnham College, Cambridge, and the classics editor of the TLS. Her books include the acclaimed and best-selling Pompeii, The Roman Triumph and The Parthenon (in the Wonders of the World series of which she is general editor). She is the winner of the Wolfson Prize for History for Pompeii (Profile, 2008).
