Sept 2021

Mary Beard was showing me how she slapped down Boris Johnson in their Rome vs Greece Classics grudge match. See the debate on youtube here. Ok not really, but it was the prompt to get the reaction above.

Professor Mary Beard made us come through the garden and told us that we could shoot in the garden, which is were we set up our background in the blazing sunshine. But if we wanted to shoot in the house we couldn’t move anything, not even a bit of paper as she was deep into working on her latest book and had a system going. I know exactly what she means as my desk is a very organised chaos.

However ‘don’t move anything’ is a total horror for photographers, like me, who are forever (very politely) moving item so that they aren’t distracting in the background! Selective cropping and embracing the mess was my route. Also once she realised my pain she obliged with being very charming and full of interesting conversations.

What a Joy.