What’s exciting about a 4,000-year-old loaf of bread or a few pots of paint abandoned in Pompeii? Far more than you might think. In her captivating new book Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old, Mary Beard shows how the distant past continues to surprise, provoke, and reshape the way we see the world today.

This is a rare opportunity to hear directly from the “rock star scholar of Ancient Rome” as she brings her newest book to life. Whether you’re a long-time classics lover or simply curious about the world’s oldest stories, this promises to be an illuminating and entertaining evening. Book your ticket now for an event that will change the way you see the ancient world, and perhaps the modern one too.

Talking Classics:
Talking Classics asks a deceptively simple question: why should we care about ancient Greece and Rome? Mary Beard reveals that the life, art, and literature of antiquity are not the exclusive domain of wealthy white men, but a rich, messy, and diverse inheritance that belongs to all of us. From angry landlords to giggling senators, she explores the humanity of those who lived long ago — and how their stories still echo in our own.

With trademark wit and clarity, Beard uncovers the unexpected ways the ancient world has inspired modern revolutionaries and dictators, artists and pop icons – from Bob Dylan to Beyoncé. Drawing on fifty years of teaching and research, she fills the book with lively stories, curious facts, and even a little well-placed gossip, arguing that while no one has to be excited by antiquity, it’s a shame not to be.

Mary Beard is the most acclaimed classicist of our time. Professor Emerita of Classics at Cambridge, Classics editor of the TLS, and co-host of the Instant Classics podcast, she is the bestselling author of SPQR, Pompeii, Women & Power and Emperor of Rome. Her work has been translated into over 35 languages, and she is celebrated for bringing the ancient world to a global audience with wit, scholarship, and accessibility.

Thursday 23 April | 7.30 pm
Stanwell School Auditorium, Archer Road, Penarth, CF64 2XL
Tickets: From £5.00

BOOK NOW: GriffinBooksEvents.co.uk