Mary Beard

Mary Beard is an award-winning author, professor and classical scholar who is widely considered to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on ancient Rome. Her prodigious output of books, lectures, interviews and articles has made her a widely respected figure in her field, particularly with the British public.

Born in Much Wenlock in Shropshire, England in 1955, Mary Beard attended Cambridge University, where she read classics, made her mark on the academic world and earned her PhD. Since then, she has held professorships at Cambridge and the University of London and is a professor of classics at Cambridge, where she still teaches.

A public intellectual in demand, Mary Beard has written glowing reviews of popular fiction classics, shared her thoughts on the state of current affairs and gender politics in Britain, and appeared in television programmes on the BBC. She has also written and contributed to a number of acclaimed books on the Roman world and beyond.

The Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town (2008), which she cowrote with her husband, John Henderson, is a comprehensive and detailed account of the history and archaeology of the ancient city. Another of her works, The Roman Triumph (2007), reveals the power that the Roman state used to celebrate itself and its victories in wars.

Mary Beard's books offer an insightful look at the complexity and grandeur of the Roman Empire's ancient past. In her book SPQR (2015), for instance, she masterfully illustrates the political, social, and cultural histories of the Roman Republic and why it was able to endure for over 500 years. The book enjoyed wide success, taking the number one spot on the Sunday Times bestseller list and was awarded the 2015 Wolfson History Prize.

Mary Beard’s extensive body of work is not only insightful but also accessible to readers of all levels. The author has a knack for making learning history into an enjoyable experience that can help readers make sense of their own world, culminating with examples from Rome.

Not only is Mary Beard’s work accessible, but it has also won her a fair number of acclaim. In 2014, she was awarded an honorary fellowship of the British Academy in recognition of her “distinguished achievements in the study of classics”.

Mary Beard is also a prominent figure on social media. Through her Twitter, Instagram, and other online platforms, she shares her views on a range of topics. From her dark humour to her feminist thinking, to her strong voice on gender equality, all have earned her huge amounts of attention and admiration.

Mary Beard’s prolific work continues to inform and educate millions around the world, firmly cementing her status as a foremost public intellectual in our time.