Mary Beard takes us on an exhilarating journey through the extraordinary riches of the classical heritage, and why it still matters.

With such a champion as Beard to debunk and popularise, the future of the study of classics is assured Daily Telegraph 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 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 an irrepressible enthusiast with a refreshing disregard for convention FT She stands in the great tradition of myth-puncturing Latin classicists New York Review of Books Beard is the best...communicator of Classics we have Independent on Sunday highly engaging Sunday 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

Mary Beard is a professor of classics at Newnham College, Cambridge, and the classics editor of the TLS. She has world-wide academic acclaim. Her previous books include the best-selling, Wolfson Prize-winning Pompeii, The Roman Triumph and The Parthenon. Her blog has been collected in the books It's a Don's Life [9781846682513] and All in a Don's Day [9781846685361].