Her central themes are the classics, universities and teaching - and much else besides. In this second collection following on from the success of It's a Don's Life, Beard ponders whether Gaddafi's home is Roman or not, we share her 'terror of humiliation' as she enters 'hairdresser country' and follow her dilemma as she wanders through the quandary of illegible handwriting on examination papers and 'longing for the next dyslexic' - on whose paper the answers are typed, not handwritten.
Mary Beard is a professor of classics at Newnham College, Cambridge, and the classics editor of the TLS. Her books include the acclaimed Pompeii which is translated into nine languages, The Roman Triumph and The Parthenon, part of the 'Wonders of the World' series of which she is general editor.