How exciting to have this perfect vademecum - another word for a guidebook, as all you Latin scholars will know, or literally, a go-with-me. -- Harry Mount * Independent on Sunday *
[a] brilliant portrait of the life of a Roman town... [a] wonderful book. -- James McConnachie * Sunday Times *
Beard's cheerful scepticism makes her Pompeii more intriguing, more believable, than any version I have read. -- Christian Tyler * FT *
A vivid demonstration that sceptical scholarship can provide as gripping a read as sensationalism... a learned and fascinating book. -- Tom Holland * Guardian *
Such verve and such mesmerising detail...A work of punctilious and scholarly devotion. -- Ian Thomson * Evening Standard *
A vivid and engaging portrait of this enigmatic and historically important town -- Clover Stroud * Sunday Telegraph *
Fresh and original, Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town makes history come alive * Daily Express *
Dynamically, wittily and authoritatively brings the ancient world to life -- Simon Sebag Montefiore * Standard *
The book begins in darkness with desperate fugitives attempting to outrun the deadly flow. It ends with a practical guide to viewing the site, right down to tipping the lavatory attendants ... It is an odd justaposition, but an inspired one. Few could resist a visit having read Mary Beard's compelling account. -- Elizabeth Speller * Independent *
What Mary Beard , one of the most distinguished Roman historians in the English-speaking world, has given us here is a delightfully readable account ... [She] has the facility for bringing all [the] characters to life ...without sacrificing scholarly accuarcy. -- John Dillon * Irish Times *
Her intelligence is ever alert, probing, questioning accepted stereotypes. She has the scepticism proper to the true historian. She repeatedly offers pithy and illuminating judgements. ... This is a fascinating book. -- Alan Massie * Literary Review *
I'm tempted to say if you read one book of history this year it should be Pompeii. Not just because it is written with a rare mixture of scrupulous scholarship and a relaxed conversational narrative drive - Beard seems actually to like her readers, which is rare among serious scholars - but becuase Pompeii itself matters. -- Michael Bywater * New Statesman *
My advice? Buy this book before you go - all trips to Pompeii, armchair or actual, will be inordinately enhanced. -- Bettany Hughes * Times *
A forensic adventure through the back alleys and the mansions of a dead city, checking the beds, the looms, the loos, what time the carts rolled in the streets, what was for breakfast and the politics going down in the Forum ... a proper detcitive story ... a wonder -- Michael Pye * Scotsman *
She makes the dead of Pompeii spring to life. -- Raymond Carr * Spectator *
This is ancient history as it should be written and the invaluable companion to any trip to Pompeii. -- Giles Foden * Conde Nast Traveller *
Much of what you think you know about Pompeii may turn out, on reading this eye-opening book, to be wrong. ...Beard always wears her learning lightly, and in this outstanding book she has excelled herself ...gripping -- Andrew Holgate * Sunday Times (Christmas Books Roundup) *
Mary Beard is a wonderful and amusing companion and explainer. If you ever go to Pompeii, read this first. -- Boris Johnson * Irish Mail on Sunday *
