Our guest today is one of the UK's best known and best loved public intellectuals, the classicist and expert on Roman history Professor Dame Mary Beard. Mary tells Gyles about her country childhood in Shropshire, playing on a disused railway track and trying to memorise Jane Eyre by heart. She talks about her interesting parents - a headmistress and a "raffish" historical buildings architect, and about the alarming visits up ladders into church belfries she made with her dad. She talks about Cambridge, sexism, and discusses interesting questions such as 'how to think' with Gyles. She talks about her early relationships with men and she describes the chain of events which led to her being raped in Italy as a student. She talks about the challenges of being a public intellectual, and about her aversion to risk aversion!

As you can tell, this is a wide-ranging and fascinating discussion. Enjoy this.

NB this episode contains some discussion of a rape, which is not graphic, but you may want to be mindful of this if listening with children.

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