To churn out this huge volume of content requires compromises in style and content, especially when making TV documentaries which have to be lucid and simple enough to appeal to everyone.

she’s written nineteen books and countless articles and reviews.

she is very ‘vocal’ on her twitter account and has been ‘controversial’ enough to trigger a number of twitterstorms.

she regularly appears on Question Time and other BBC panel shows.

she has fronted seven TV documentary series – Pompeii: Life and Death in a Roman Town (BBC 2), Meet the Romans with Mary Beard (BBC 2), Caligula with Mary Beard (BBC 2), Pompeii: New Secrets Revealed with Mary Beard (BBC 1), Mary Beard’s Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit (BBC 2), Julius Caesar Revealed (BBC 1), she wrote and presented two of the nine episodes in Civilisations (BBC 2) and she hosts a new BBC arts programme Lockdown Culture.

she has a regular column in the Times Literary Supplement, ‘A Don’s Life’, columns which have been gathered into not one but two books.

Dame Mary Beard DBE FSA FBA FRSL is a tiresomely ubiquitous presence across all media: Mary Beard’s ubiquityīy the bottom of page one I was disappointed. I picked it up at the British Museum’s Nero exhibition, my mind fired up by a couple of hours looking at exhibits illustrating all aspects of ancient Roman life in the first century AD. SPQR is a long book – including the notes and index, it totals a chunky 606 pages.

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