I have never been one of those people to have lots of heroes and heroines. Even as a teenager, when it was almost expected that one hero worshipped the latest musical fad, I was never much enamoured, even of the supposedly magnificent Beatles! I couldn't see the point of four mop topped Liverpudlian lads prancing around a stage! The only person who really got my feet tapping was, I am ashamed to admit, the swivel hipped Elvis Presley. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that I was told at a very early age that I was tone deaf. (In much later years I was told by an OU music tutor that this amounted to child abuse!) I certainly have a few sporting heroes. When I started playing golf it was the beautiful Freddie Couples! Even now I mutter his name as I swing my club. His rhythm is wonderful to behold and really slows down my own swing. Of course my father was always a hero to me, he died far too early for him to be anything else. A regular in the RAF who came through the entire war without a scratch, and then died in a plane crash during the Berlin Airlift trying to save the very people he had been helping to bomb only a few years before. This is the famous Candy Bomber, the American pilot who used to drop little
parachutes full of sweets to the children waiting below. But up until now I have had very few heroines. Perhaps my headmistress at school, the wonderful Miss Lillian Burridge, who seemed to have the ability to dictate the weather! I can't remember a single wet school sports day or fete day. There must surely have been some, but all I can remember is Burridge weather! This continues to this day at our biannual school reunions.
What has changed? The magnificent Professor Mary Beard. Firstly I admire her for her sheer erudition. Her knowledge of Classics seems to be boundless. Secondly I admire her ability, and her willingness, to pass on this knowledge - not as easy at it sounds as those who have had teachers who 'know it all' but are singularly inept at teaching it to anyone else. But what I really admire about her is her ability to be so happy in her own skin. She is able to just be herself, without any aids or artifice, and it's their loss to anyone who doesn't like her. This has been made truly apparent this week with all the hooha about her magnificent TV programme about the real Romans, and the totally uncalled for criticisms of the much to be pitied A.A.Gill. Pitied because he must have such low self esteem to write what he did. For anyone who doesn't know what this is about can I direct you to Mary's blog
A Don's Life. http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/ where there has been much discussion. The television programme
Meet the Romans is, as to be expected with such an engaging presenter, entertaining, informative, and full of wonderful asides about the real people of ancient Rome. Mary has the ability to inject humour into her work second to none. This is not just her TV work, but her lecturing and her books, which have that rare quality in academia of being actually
readable! She is also, as I know, blessed with a wonderful memory for faces, and a complete disregard for 'status'. Thank you Mary. I know I am older than you, but when I grow up I hope to be just like you!
