What a way to start a new series! It's the author, classicist, broadcaster and bone fide National Treasure Dame Mary Beard. We were lucky enough to speak to Mary during the Jaiphur Literary Festival at Soneva Fushi in the Maldives. Mary is the author of many books about the ancient world including the global bestsellers Women & Power, SPQR and her latest Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World. We talked to her about ancient Roman jokes, brutal writing advice, fearing fiction and the pros and cons of archaeology. Daisy will be at Henley Literary Festival in early October and at the Margate Bookie at the end of October. Details of Daisy's How To Be a Grown Up event with Sarah Knight are available HERE. Find out more about Daisy's Creative Confidence Substack and her Summer School Writing Course HERE or email: [email protected]. And sign up for the You're Booked newsletter by heading to:  FurtherReading.Substack.com. Find out more about all the books mentioned on the episode by visiting https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/booked BOOKS Daisy Buchanan - Limelight Daisy Buchanan - How To Be a Grown Up Mary Beard - Women & Power Mary Beard - Emperor of Rome Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre Jenny Diski - Stranger on a Train Robert Graves - I, Claudius Margaret Drabble - The Millstone Margaret Drabble - The Garrick Year Robert Harris - Pompeii Heinrich Schliemann - Ilios, the City and Country of the Trojans Lindsey Davis - The Silver Pigs Mary Renault - The King Must Die Peter Frankopan - The Silk Road Kim Gordon, Sinead Gleason (Eds) - This Woman's Work Sophocles - Antigone Mary Beard - Roman Laughter Seneca the Younger - Apocolocyntosis Cassius Dio - The Roman History Tom Holland - Slave of my Thirst Tom Holland - Rubicon Gavanndra Hodge - The Consequences of Love George Orwell - Coming Up For Air Laura Cumming - On Chapel Sands Craig Brown - Maam Darling Curtis Sittenfeld - Rodham Hilary Clinton - State of Terror Tacitus - Annals Prince Harry - Spare Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.