She had considered King's, but rejected it when she learned the college did not offer scholarships to women. Īt 18 she sat the then-compulsory entrance exam and interview for Cambridge University, to win a place at Newnham College, a single-sex college. During the summer she would join archaeological excavations, though the motivation was, in part, just the prospect of earning some pocket-money. She was taught poetry by Frank McEachran, who was teaching then at the nearby Shrewsbury School, and was the inspiration for schoolmaster Hector in Alan Bennett's play The History Boys.
īeard was educated at Shrewsbury High School, a girls' school then funded as a direct grant grammar school. She recalled him as "a raffish public-schoolboy type and a complete wastrel, but very engaging". Her father, Roy Whitbread Beard, worked as an architect in Shrewsbury.
Her mother, Joyce Emily Beard, was a headmistress and an enthusiastic reader. Mary Beard, an only child, was born on 1 January 1955 in Much Wenlock, Shropshire. The New Yorker characterises her as "learned but accessible". Her frequent media appearances and sometimes controversial public statements have led to her being described as "Britain's best-known classicist". She is a fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge, and Royal Academy of Arts Professor of Ancient Literature.īeard is the classics editor of The Times Literary Supplement, where she also writes a regular blog, "A Don's Life". She is a trustee of the British Museum and formerly held a personal professorship of Classics at the University of Cambridge. Dame Winifred Mary Beard, DBE, FSA, FBA, FRSL (born 1 January 1955) is an English scholar of Ancient Rome.
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