I was a little nervous about meeting Mrs Beard. Having been described as a ‘staunch-feminist-classicist’, a quick foray onto her Wikipedia profile confirmed this. Would I have anything in common with such a character; or would the interview fail after a stagnant ten minutes? My experience of feminism extends only so far as a few pieces of ‘feminist’ criticism for my Shakespeare exam; the most irritating of which critiqued imagined female characters in the tragedies. Aside from this, the only image my mind could conjure up was that she might ask me to burn my bra. Moreover, my grasp of Classics is somewhat limited. Having only studied Latin until I was 16, my knowledge can be encapsulated into a few sentences consisting of such over quoted phrases as ‘Metella est Mater...Caecilius est in Horto’... I think that’s right.

Fortunately, Mrs Beard’s online blog, ‘A Don’s Life’, is designed for people exactly like me. That is, with seriously stunted knowledge of the classical world. She intertwines stories from her day to day life as well as the news, with classical reference; ensuring that her readers are at once entertained and educated.

In spite of the blog’s title, her entries are intended to dispel the stereotypical view of Cambridge academics as bumbling, port swilling fools, floating around in gardens or on punts. As she explained, she "would love to dine at high table every night... but I’m just too bloody busy."

Instead, the blog is about her everyday findings: reflections on her students, her subject and her work. A recent entry discusses her concerns for how best to prepare her Newnham finalists for their exams – she took them on a day trip to Paris. She’s certainly not your typical DoS.

Despite her efforts however, criticism from the tabloids is unavoidable. She is often "utterly shocked at the press’ reactions to the blog", for they seem intent on portraying her and her fellow ‘dons’ as "fusty old fools", and will amplify the tiniest throwaway remark to make their point.

Take for instance, the extensive coverage that her May 21st entry received. In an article which lamented a Britain in which Health and Safety has "gone mad", Mrs Beard discussed the refurbishment of the Classics Department. In what was, in reality, an insignificantly miniscule comment, Mrs Beard remarked that amongst the Greek lettering on the door, there was an English ‘S’. The Nationals jumped at the opportunity to show "toffs getting it wrong." The Telegraph called it "embarrassing" and The Mail said the "blunder" was "humiliating", concluding that Aristotle is "all Greek to Cambridge Academics." "When things like this occur it can be irritating," she explains, but the positive results of her five-year-old blog far outweigh the negative.

Her career in journalism began when she found herself at home with two young children. (It is at this point that the term ‘women in the workplace’ comes up – the beginning of a feminist rant?) "You’ll see if you ever have children that as a mother you are left with a lot of free time... just never in the bulk amounts required for serious study... you will have twenty minutes here and there throughout the day." It was this "twenty minutes" that resulted in her beginning to write reviews for The Times Literary Supplement (TLS). Soon enough, Mrs Beard became a regular on their pages and not too long after that she became the editor of the classics pages. "The way it happened was delightfully old-fashioned." She approached the outgoing editor to enquire who would be taking over, to be greeted with the news "Well Mary, we were rather hoping you would do it." And so it went from there.

The blog itself also came around somewhat accidentally. After being approached by another national to pen one, she requested permission from her superiors. "Instead, they offered me the opportunity to write one for The Times." "At first I was anxious about the whole idea of it," she explains, "The majority of blogs seem to be written by the sorts of people who phone in to late night television shows to rant about the chip on their shoulder."

For Beard however, the whole experience has been "immensely satisfying", and her cheery but realistic insights into Cambridge life have earned her the epithet ‘the delightful Don’. The blog penetrates through the bubble to the outside world, something that ever since a four year spell lecturing at King’s College London, she has realised is absolutely necessary. "I love Cambridge... but it is essential to remind yourself that there is an outside world, and to engage with it."

She has acquired a "keen group of regular followers" who provide inspiration and recommendations for future pieces. On top of this, she often attracts attention from a much wider national and international audience. Thus, the opportunity to have a regular electronic blog, available to all, was undeniable; it allows for immediacy of discussion. "It’s enjoyable to watch the ripples of your piece expand quickly across the international press, as other writers pick up what you have said and enter into discourse with you." Moreover, she has the "chance to educate readers on the wonders of the classical world", another reason why the online nature of her blog is so attractive to her. "In the printed press, if I wanted to write an article about Greek tragedy, I would have to spend at least half the page explaining its conventions. On a website, I can post a link, from which all the information my readers may need is just a click away." In this way, she explains, she is engaging her readers with ideas and traditions of which many would otherwise be unaware.

So far, so good – no disarmingly feminist responses. I had also been instructed to probe her on May Week. Surely a famous liberal would have a lot to say about this? "My opinion on the matter is disappointingly conservative...even though I believe that the things I did post-exams were more interesting (she was an undergraduate at Newnham), I cannot blame the students for having the fun that they do, or at the intensity they elect to have it." That being said, she "would not want to find herself on King’s Parade on a May Week morning."

Asked what she makes of tabloid coverage of the antics, Mrs Beard muses that "they don’t have pictures of you all shitting yourselves in the UL for four weeks before exams. If they printed both sides of the story, it would make for far less sensationalist Hooray Henry coverage... and less of a nightmare for access." A surprisingly non-liberal opinion on it all then, or maybe she just remembers how soul-destroying a fourteen hour library session can be.