I expect to be ribbed mercilessly, says Shropshire-born Dame Mary Beard
Shropshire-born T V historian Mary Beard today spoke of her delight at being made a dame in the Queen's Birthday Honours.
Dame Mary, originally from Much Wenlock, said she reacted with "a mixture of disbelief and pleasure" at the news – and joked that she expects her friends and family to rib her about the honour.
She said: "I think there will be a bit of ribaldry to be honest – and a few jokes about 'pantomime dames'."
Dame Mary, who was awarded an OBE in the 2013 New Year Honours, will receive a damehood for services to the study of classical civilisations.
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She said: “It is of course a smashing honour. I feel especially pleased that someone working on the ancient classical world gets honoured in this way.
The Cambridge professor is well-known for her online presence and regular appearances on classics and discussion panel programmes on the BBC, as well as contributing to Radio 4 series A Point Of View.
Despite her many accolades, the scholar said she reacted with “a mixture of disbelief and pleasure” at the news.
Born Winifred Mary Beard, she is often described as Britain’s best-known classicist for her regular appearances in the media.
It was her time as an undergraduate at Cambridge University which sparked the feminist views that she holds dear.
Dame Mary completed her PhD in 1982 and became the only female lecturer in Newnham College’s Classics faculty.
In 2004 she became Professor of Classics at Cambridge and launched her TV career in 2010, when she presented Pompeii: Life And Death In A Roman Town, on BBC Two.
She has gone on to write a number of documentaries on the subject as well as appear on Question Time.
The author of almost twenty books, she also writes the A Don’s Life blog for the Times Literary Supplement and has recently spoken about the #MeToo movement.
"I think, though, that we have to wait a while before we know whether this is a real turning point or not. It is hard to turn a hashtag into practical social and political change,” she added.
On the progress of gender equality in a few years’ time, she said: “I feel fairly confident that it will be better, the question is how much better. I have lived through a gender revolution in my lifetime…but there is still a hell of a long way to go.”
Dame Mary married art historian Robin Cormack in 1985. They have a daughter, Zoe and son Raphael.
