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All in a Don's Day
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.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
30 people are currently reading
242 people want to read
About the author
Mary Beard
65 books4,210 followersWinifred Mary Beard (born 1 January 1955) is Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge and is a fellow of Newnham College. She is the Classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement, and author of the blog "A Don's Life", which appears on The Times as a regular column. Her frequent media appearances and sometimes controversial public statements have led to her being described as "Britain's best-known classicist".
Mary Beard, an only child, was born on 1 January 1955 in Much Wenlock, Shropshire. Her father, Roy Whitbread Beard, worked as an architect in Shrewsbury. She recalled him as "a raffish public-schoolboy type and a complete wastrel, but very engaging". Her mother Joyce Emily Beard was a headmistress and an enthusiastic reader.
Mary Beard attended an all-female direct grant school. During the summer she participated in archaeological excavations; this was initially to earn money for recreational spending, but she began to find the study of antiquity unexpectedly interesting. But it was not all that interested the young Beard. She had friends in many age groups, and a number of trangressions: "Playing around with other people's husbands when you were 17 was bad news. Yes, I was a very naughty girl."
At the age of 18 she was interviewed for a place at Newnham College, Cambridge and sat the then compulsory entrance exam. She had thought of going to King's, but rejected it when she discovered the college did not offer scholarships to women. Although studying at a single-sex college, she found in her first year that some men in the University held dismissive attitudes towards women's academic potential, and this strengthened her determination to succeed. She also developed feminist views that remained "hugely important" in her later life, although she later described "modern orthodox feminism" as partly "cant". Beard received an MA at Newnham and remained in Cambridge for her PhD.
From 1979 to 1983 she lectured in Classics at King's College London. She returned to Cambridge in 1984 as a fellow of Newnham College and the only female lecturer in the Classics faculty. Rome in the Late Republic, which she co-wrote with the Cambridge ancient historian Michael Crawford, was published the same year. In 1985 Beard married Robin Sinclair Cormack. She had a daughter in 1985 and a son in 1987. Beard became Classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement in 1992.
Shortly after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, Beard was one of several authors invited to contribute articles on the topic to the London Review of Books. She opined that many people, once "the shock had faded", thought "the United States had it coming", and that "[w]orld bullies, even if their heart is in the right place, will in the end pay the price".[4] In a November 2007 interview, she stated that the hostility these comments provoked had still not subsided, although she believed it had become a standard viewpoint that terrorism was associated with American foreign policy.[1]
In 2004, Beard became the Professor of Classics at Cambridge.[3] She is also the Visiting Sather Professor of Classical Literature for 2008–2009 at the University of California, Berkeley, where she has delivered a series of lectures on "Roman Laughter".[5]
Mary Beard, an only child, was born on 1 January 1955 in Much Wenlock, Shropshire. Her father, Roy Whitbread Beard, worked as an architect in Shrewsbury. She recalled him as "a raffish public-schoolboy type and a complete wastrel, but very engaging". Her mother Joyce Emily Beard was a headmistress and an enthusiastic reader.
Mary Beard attended an all-female direct grant school. During the summer she participated in archaeological excavations; this was initially to earn money for recreational spending, but she began to find the study of antiquity unexpectedly interesting. But it was not all that interested the young Beard. She had friends in many age groups, and a number of trangressions: "Playing around with other people's husbands when you were 17 was bad news. Yes, I was a very naughty girl."
At the age of 18 she was interviewed for a place at Newnham College, Cambridge and sat the then compulsory entrance exam. She had thought of going to King's, but rejected it when she discovered the college did not offer scholarships to women. Although studying at a single-sex college, she found in her first year that some men in the University held dismissive attitudes towards women's academic potential, and this strengthened her determination to succeed. She also developed feminist views that remained "hugely important" in her later life, although she later described "modern orthodox feminism" as partly "cant". Beard received an MA at Newnham and remained in Cambridge for her PhD.
From 1979 to 1983 she lectured in Classics at King's College London. She returned to Cambridge in 1984 as a fellow of Newnham College and the only female lecturer in the Classics faculty. Rome in the Late Republic, which she co-wrote with the Cambridge ancient historian Michael Crawford, was published the same year. In 1985 Beard married Robin Sinclair Cormack. She had a daughter in 1985 and a son in 1987. Beard became Classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement in 1992.
Shortly after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, Beard was one of several authors invited to contribute articles on the topic to the London Review of Books. She opined that many people, once "the shock had faded", thought "the United States had it coming", and that "[w]orld bullies, even if their heart is in the right place, will in the end pay the price".[4] In a November 2007 interview, she stated that the hostility these comments provoked had still not subsided, although she believed it had become a standard viewpoint that terrorism was associated with American foreign policy.[1]
In 2004, Beard became the Professor of Classics at Cambridge.[3] She is also the Visiting Sather Professor of Classical Literature for 2008–2009 at the University of California, Berkeley, where she has delivered a series of lectures on "Roman Laughter".[5]
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 17, 2012
I'm in in it, so of course it gets 5 stars. seriously, very entertaining dip into many topics and opinions...
December 14, 2022
Mary Beard is the number one celebrity classicist in the contemporary English speaking world and her personality and erudition certainly has captured the interest of this once-aspiring postgrad student of ancient Roman sexual history. In ‘All in a Don’s Day’ Beard’s classicist and ancient historian persona is deeply embedded in much of the text. However, this is not a dry as dust study of the life of an academic at Cambridge University. This book is a collection of numerous blogs from the period 2009-11 and Beard ranges over issues as varied as the pissing boy statue in Brussels to the consequences of protesting, and lots of variegated points in between, yes, this compendium of blog entries is mostly focused on the academic life, yet it is not purely devoted to the esoteric nature of life on and in one of the most elite education facilities in the world.
Beard’s opinions on all the subjects she tackles are informed by her erudition, her desire to engage as honestly as she can with the issues, and dare one say a somewhat matriarchal charm reinforced by her ‘English’ nature. She does not write comparatively nor is she so devoted to her own ego or the value of her arguments that she won’t except criticism. There are occasions when what she writes does not quite gel with more contemporary and perhaps PC values. However, there is an underpinning of reasonableness and intelligence that makes reading Beard’s blog entries far more informative and engaging than other more controversial or self-possessed columnists’ work.
It is also interesting to see that at the end of almost all places in this volume Beard and her publisher have included some of the responses to her pieces. There is a semi regular lineup of respondents who get the opportunity to have their views published in this text, and some of them they will be if not colleagues at least fellow academics. On some occasions these responses are more like a shared remembrance or anecdote. In other entries these replies reject Beard’s views. Beard, her editor and publisher deserve recognition for including such commentary on her writing.
It goes without saying that a good portion of this book is focused on Mary’s issues, processes, problems and other aspects of her life as a university academic. The life that she describes is certainly demanding (physically and mentality) but it must be noted that Beard obviously enjoys the job she has, the role she has undertaken. For all the concerns and challenges that she sites in this book at bottom the reader encounters the thoughts, feelings, actions and musings of a passionate intellectual. Also, Beard is willing to mix her intellectual stylings with arguably more mundane experiences.
There is no doubt that anyone who is interested in the world of academia, what it is like to be at Cambridge University, and perhaps the celebrity nature of Mary Beard will find plenty to enjoy in ‘All in a Don’s Day’. Relatively short and not too challenging for those who most likely will read the book (students and those with an interest in academia) this is a book that will be very engaging fir it’s probable audience. The nature of the text means that there is a rather fragmentary approach to the books narrative but that’s relatively inconsequential. At the end of the day this is a book about and by Mary beard and if one likes her work and her public persona then you will want to read it. If not you probably won’t.
Beard’s opinions on all the subjects she tackles are informed by her erudition, her desire to engage as honestly as she can with the issues, and dare one say a somewhat matriarchal charm reinforced by her ‘English’ nature. She does not write comparatively nor is she so devoted to her own ego or the value of her arguments that she won’t except criticism. There are occasions when what she writes does not quite gel with more contemporary and perhaps PC values. However, there is an underpinning of reasonableness and intelligence that makes reading Beard’s blog entries far more informative and engaging than other more controversial or self-possessed columnists’ work.
It is also interesting to see that at the end of almost all places in this volume Beard and her publisher have included some of the responses to her pieces. There is a semi regular lineup of respondents who get the opportunity to have their views published in this text, and some of them they will be if not colleagues at least fellow academics. On some occasions these responses are more like a shared remembrance or anecdote. In other entries these replies reject Beard’s views. Beard, her editor and publisher deserve recognition for including such commentary on her writing.
It goes without saying that a good portion of this book is focused on Mary’s issues, processes, problems and other aspects of her life as a university academic. The life that she describes is certainly demanding (physically and mentality) but it must be noted that Beard obviously enjoys the job she has, the role she has undertaken. For all the concerns and challenges that she sites in this book at bottom the reader encounters the thoughts, feelings, actions and musings of a passionate intellectual. Also, Beard is willing to mix her intellectual stylings with arguably more mundane experiences.
There is no doubt that anyone who is interested in the world of academia, what it is like to be at Cambridge University, and perhaps the celebrity nature of Mary Beard will find plenty to enjoy in ‘All in a Don’s Day’. Relatively short and not too challenging for those who most likely will read the book (students and those with an interest in academia) this is a book that will be very engaging fir it’s probable audience. The nature of the text means that there is a rather fragmentary approach to the books narrative but that’s relatively inconsequential. At the end of the day this is a book about and by Mary beard and if one likes her work and her public persona then you will want to read it. If not you probably won’t.
February 2, 2024
I definitely didn't realize that this was a collection of blog posts before picking it up, so it was a bit of a jarring start. I can't tell if it was the anticipation of wanting a proper classics book or if I really just didn't enjoy it but it did not hold my attention. Also, some of her takes, or at least the way she said them, were odd. Theoretically I like the idea of including comments, but in reality, I absolutely skimmed over them. Overall, I'd give her other academic books a shot, but I wouldn't read another collection of blog posts- honestly from anyone.
April 1, 2021
I chose this book to read because I’m a total fan of Mary Beard. Her blog entries provide a fascinating insight into the life of a Cambridge Don, as she maneuvers through an academic life of issues and people. I read only half of her entries, as I got the gist of her experiences at work. I prefer to watch her documentaries on telly and read her non-fiction books on Roman life.
February 24, 2020
Pleasant reading. Short chapters, often thought provoking. Makes you want to add comments at the bottom.
October 19, 2020
It was Ok
February 15, 2025
Some of her takes were worse than the first one, and there was less history stuff unfortunately, it still, a less good Mary Beard is a good book
July 12, 2012
Perhaps this makes me yearn for an England I thought had disappeared or the acceptance of an academic world as the norm? Beard is not an academic in my own subject matter, but I hang on her every word and am flying into the UK just to got to some lectures by her. This may be an acquired taste but it's my acquired taste.
March 31, 2016
Really good fun to reread all these blog posts in book form, with the best comments selected. Quite a few editorial mistakes and typos here and there, though.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews