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.