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WITNESSING A CLASSMATE’S crushing treatment at the hands of a professor who pronounced his essay boring, the young Mary Beard resolved this should never happen to her. A commitment to be as interesting as possible, to entertain, has driven her since, through decades of classical scholarship, advancement to the chair of classics at Cambridge, prolific publication and, most recently, a blog for Times Online. A Don’s Life, as it is named, might appear to roam far from the ancient world, to popular culture, reality TV and politics, but it is always anchored in some parallel with the classical past, writes HELEN MEANY

Judging by the volume of hits and comments it receives, it satisfies an abiding appetite for learning about the cultures of the Greeks and Romans, particularly when it delivers its insights in short, discursive blasts and a chatty style. “Ten things you thought you knew about the Romans but didn’t” is a typical post – it received 80,000 hits. Others vie for attention with headings such as “Pissing on the pyramids”, “Keep Lesbos for the Lesbians” and “Sex on the beach”. Many are serious and searching, bringing open-minded directness to huge questions, such as: “Why didn’t the Athenians give women the vote?” Beard’s capacity to cut through received ideas shines through, and, while this may not quite amount to being “wickedly subversive”, as the blog’s tagline claims, it is undeniably impressive.