Mumsnet Talk

TheCunningStunt

Hi Mary....
Firstly was that really you that came on a MN thread whilst your roman tv series was on???
And my actual question, when did your love for history start? What kicked it all off for you and made you realise it was a passion?

I know it's technically two questions.....well three..but two are intertwined and the first is just nosey slightly relevant.

WEll it started when I was young.. back in the British Museum.
But I LOVED archaeology when I was a teenager...not just for the academic side, I confess.
I remember going off on these great digs.. you excavated hard all day, and partied by night (and your parent thought you had a highbrow hobby)

Jammother

Hi Mary

Do you think that studying Classics at an advanced level (PhD) is still worth pursuing as so many young academics can only gain short term temporary employment for many years thus making financial security, domestic stability and being able to have a family almost impossible?

The academic job market is not great right now, and it is awful just going from short term job, to short term job.
More people do get a permanent position than we imagine, but I still say to may would be PhD students.. yo have to want to do this badly enough that if you dont get a job directly out of it, it will still seem worth it.
Some of my Phd students and friends have gone on to all kinds of different careers.. many are pleased to have done the PhD

SkippyYourFriendEverTrue

Hi.

From what I've seen Classics has fewer applicants per place than most Cambridge subjects.

Does this mean that the calibre of Cambridge Classics undergraduates is less than that of Cambridge students more generally?

That is true, there are fewer applicants per place.. but we say (and I believe it to be true) that they are highly self selected. It is often the brightest kids in a school that choose to do Latin... certainly Cambridge college dont find the classicists thicker than the norm. Far from it!

BoffinMum

I think we should have an adapted biscuit question and ask Mary what her preferred Roman coffee time snack of choice would be, and also which Roman she would prefer to share it with?

Let me answer the Biscuitq... formicae (that I think is the Latin for Garibaldi).

For coffe I shall choose a nice glass of Falernian, and the companion...?Difficult.. Livia would be a bit terrifying, Julia a bit too much like Samantha Brick (so hard being pretty)... I fear I might settle for a scholarly chat with Emperor Claudius

TunipTheVegemal

Welcome to Mumsnet again, Mary. Thank you for coming.

Quid est vestrum crustulum acceptissimum?

(not sure if I've got that right but I know you would want us to have a go!)

Better than I could do

Nasturtiumsalad

Salve Mary,

I'm a former student of yours and loved my time at Newnham- it shaped who I am and how I think. Thanks for all you did. However, ten(ish) years on, busy juggling work and a young family, I can't remember much of the actual Latin, Greek, history and philosophy I learnt then, let alone find time to argue out the questions that enthused us all then.

Any tips for me and others in a similar position on how to revive the interest (of the sort that can be fitted into commuting time and other small corners of the day)? Or should we just give up and wait until the kids are older?

Gratias tibi ago.

Hi and Salve...
It does come back very quickly... I would kick start it with a session such as we did at Cheltenham Literary festival on Sunday...we did i hour reading some Juvenal. And we (same team, me, Peter Stothard and Llew Morgan) will be doing a London hour next yeat at the British Museum reading a bit of Virgil.

If you inject an hour like that, then go back to a Loeb.. and see if you find what interests again.. and explore all tose byways you didnt get to

MirandaGoshawk

Hi Mary, just wanted you to know how much I enjoyed your series on the Romans.
My question - what's your favourite Roman site?

I have a great soft spot for Wroxeter in UK (partly sentimental, I dug there).. and otherwise has to be Pompeii

Issy

Salve Mary

I'd like to second Nasturtium Salad's question. I'm another Classics graduate (graduated from Oxford in '87!) who has fallen firmly off the wagon. I think I'd struggle now with the Cambridge Latin Course: Caecilius est where?!

Perhaps a week-long or weekend summer school for Lapsed Classicists. There's probably enough of us now in lucrative employment (yes you can get a good job after a Classics degree) that the course could make a profit.

:thinks wistfully about a child-free/work-free week reading Virgil:

That is great .. ask the MN Academy. Think it could be great actually!

Thanks everyone... really enjoyed that. Sorry if I couldnt get to every question (though I THINK we covered all topics).

If you want more, we have a MN Academy weekend on Roman History in London. Check out the website. It will be a ball.. (a pilum, I mean)