Mary Beard (classicist)

Mary Beard OBE FSA FBA
Beard filming in Rome, 2012
Born	Winifred Mary Beard (1955-01-01) 1 January 1955 (age 62) Much Wenlock, Shropshire, England
Awards	Wolfson History Prize (2009) Officer of the Order of the British Empire (2013) Princess of Asturias Awards Bodley Medal (2016)
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Cambridge
Thesis title	The state religion in the late Roman Republic: a study based on the works of Cicero (1982)
Academic work
Discipline	Classics
Sub discipline	Ancient Rome Roman art Classical archaeology
Institutions	King's College London Newnham College, Cambridge
Notable works	The Roman Triumph SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

Winifred Mary Beard, OBE, FSA, FBA (born 1 January 1955) is an English Classical scholar.

She is Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, a fellow of Newnham College, and Royal Academy of Arts Professor of ancient literature. She is also the classics editor of The Times Literary Supplement, and author of the blog, "A Don's Life", which appears in 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 was born, an only child, on 1 January 1955 in Much Wenlock, Shropshire. Her mother, Joyce Emily Beard, was a headmistress and an enthusiastic reader. 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".

Beard was educated at Shrewsbury High School, a private school for girls. During the summer she would join archaeological excavations, though the motivation was, in part, just the prospect of earning some pocket-money.

At eighteen she sat the then-compulsory entrance exam and interview for Cambridge University, to win a place at Newnham College. She had considered King's, but rejected it when she learned the college did not offer scholarships to women.