Talking Classics

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

Mary Beard

• Publisher: Profile Books
• Year: 2026
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781805220329
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

'EastEnders for the 1st century AD... Beard's enthusiastic sense of wonder remains undimmed' THE TIMES

'The rock star scholar of Ancient Rome' FINANCIAL TIMES

'The reigning Queen of Classics' SPECTATOR

What's exciting about a piece of bread 4,000 years old? Or some pots of paint abandoned in the eruption at Pompeii? Why should we be bothered with the distant past anyway? What's the point?

The life, art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome have something to offer everyone. They are not the property of wealthy white men only. They make us wonder how to make sense of people who lived long ago (from angry landlords to giggling senators) - and to think harder about our own world, to look at it differently.

In Talking Classics, Mary Beard points to the surprising connections between antiquity and the present. From revolutionaries to dictators, Bob Dylan to Beyoncé, she joins forces with the varied modern characters who have been transfixed by the ancient world. It's not compulsory, she argues, to be excited by antiquity, but it's a shame not to be.

After half a century teaching and studying classics, she fills the book with lively stories, curious facts and some good gossip. Talking Classics explains why the deep past does really affect us all.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Also by Mary Beard
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. A Sense of Wonder
• Chapter 2. How to be Modern?
• Chapter 3. Rights and Wrongs
• Chapter 4. The Case for Classics
• Epilogue: The Boy who Breathed on the Glass in the British Museum
• Further Reading
• Acknowledgements
• List of Illustrations
• Index