Books By the Beach Scarborough with Mary Beard

Talking Classics

MARY BEARD is the most acclaimed classicist working today. She is the Professor Emerita of Classics at Cambridge and the Classics editor of the TLS. She is also the co-host, with Charlotte Higgins, of the podcast Instant Classics. Her previous books include the bestselling Wolfson Prize-winning Pompeiias well as Confronting the Classics, Women & Power and Emperor of Rome. Her work has been published in over 35 languages.

Today Mary shares her new book,Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old. What’s exciting about a piece of bread 4,000 years old? Or some pots of paint abandoned in the eruption of Pompeii? Why should we be bothered with the distant past anyway? What’s the point?

Mary will discuss such questions and more, making surprising connections between antiquity and the present. Sharing lively stories, curious facts and good gossip she argues it’s not compulsory to be excited by antiquity … but its a shame not to be!

Mary will share the stage with bestselling author and festival friend Alan Johnson. Mary is a wonderful speaker and a lively finale is promised. Join us and discover why the Classics still matter.