MB read Classics at Cambridge, and then did as PhD there (on ancient Roman religion). She held lectureship in Classics at King’s College London – before returning to Cambridge, where she has worked for 25 years (now as Professor of Classics). She has written widely on Classical culture and its reception in the modern world, and has been Classics editor of the TLS since 1992. Her latest book on Pompeii: the Life of a Roman Town won the 2008 Wolfson Prize for History. She has also taught for short periods in Paris and the USA (where she was recently Sather Professor of Classics at Berkeley). She has been known to sound off in newspapers, magazines and the radio about Classics and much more besides (from 9/11 to the erotic dimensions of pedagogy or the virtues of single-sex education). Her blog “A Don’s Life” can be found on the Times Online website