When I tell people about the guests on <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/podcasts/books-of-my-life"><em>Books of My Life</em></a>, it is Mary Beard that seems to elicit the most excited response. The Classics professor, author and presenter attracts a particular type of devotion among her fans. And although Beard has a certain no-nonsense British manner, her appeal extends far beyond her home shores. We recorded this episode of <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/podcasts/books-of-my-life"><em>Books of My Life</em></a> earlier this year at the <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/books/thousands-flock-to-jaipur-literature-festival-1.819241">Jaipur Literature Festival</a>, where Beard's 2017 book <em>Women & Power: A Manifesto</em> was in high demand, with queues snaking out of the bookshop for a signed copy. But for all her success, Beard doesn't appear to have changed a jot. She was great company, meandering from her childhood reading habits ("I do remember being hooked by a not particularly well known tale by Beatrix Potter, the <em>Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit</em>"), to a staunch defence of Germaine Greer. What was most surprising, though, was how late Beard first encountered texts such as Homer's <em>The Odyssey</em> and Virgil's <em>The Aeneid</em>. Rather than immersing herself in the Classical world as a teenager, it turns out she was devouring encyclopaedias instead. "I was an avid reader of non-fiction," she says. "Give me an encyclopaedia and I would read articles about all kinds of things. There was a pleasure in the written word telling you things about how the world was and had been." It was a joy to sit down with Mary Beard for this episode of <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/podcasts/books-of-my-life"><em>Books of My Life</em></a>. I hope her devoted following find out something new about the literary life of this pied piper of the Classics. <strong><em>Subscribe to Books of My Life through your favourite podcasting app or listen via the website: <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/podcasts/books-of-my-life">thenational.ae/podcasts/books-of-my-life</a> </em></strong>
