It's a Don's Life

It's a Don's Life

by Mary Beard (Author)

Synopsis

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.

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More Information

Format: Illustrated
Pages: 288
Edition: Main
Publisher: Profile Books
Published: 05 Nov 2009

ISBN 10: 1846682517
ISBN 13: 9781846682513
Book Overview: Britain's best known classicist speaks her mind on the ancient, and modern, worlds. A wide-ranging selection from her 'best hit' blog.

Media Reviews
Delightful ... it has the virtues of brevity, eclecticism and learning worn lightly ... Beard is a very funny and penetrating commentator on academic life - and has a fantastic knack for controversy. If they'd had Mary Beard on their side back then, the Romans would still have their empire -- Sam Leith * Daily Mail *
Enjoyable ... Beard is an exuberant communicator -- Dinah Birch * Observer *
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, but given free rein here -- Julian Fleming * Sunday Business Post *
This collection of her posts is pithy and engaging. The casual, humorous tone is seemingly informal. But the rhythm and cadence of the short blog have been honed to a fine art ... Beard remains self-deprecatory, invigoratingly sane and zestful -- Frances Spalding * Independent *
The marvellously educative, hilarious It's a Don's Life by Mary Beard, the blogging queen -- Jane Gardam * Daily Telegraph *
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 *
It's a Don's Life is, by turns, enlightening, funny, outrageous * Weekend Australian *
Author Bio
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 bestselling, Wolfson Prize-winning Pompeii, The Roman Triumph, The Parthenon and Confronting the Classics. Her blog has been collected in the books It's a Don's Life and All in a Don's Day. She is in the 2014 top 10 Prospect list of the most influential thinkers in the world.