It’s fun – I like it,” says Dame Mary Beard of Taylor Swift’s “Cassandra”. The world’s most famous classicist may not be a Swiftie, but she is delighted that one of today’s biggest pop stars has named a track after a doomed Trojan priestess.

“It shows how alive these stories still are,” adds the 70-year-old. “Thousands of years, endless social and technological change – yet here we are, with a pop star and her millions of fans singing about this tragic figure from myth.”

Society’s enduring fascination with the ancient world is what has made Beard a household name. The Cambridge professor turned broadcaster is also a trustee of the British Museum and the author of more than 20 books on classical history, feminism and academic life, including the bestsellers Pompeii , SPQR and W

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