When Mary Beard took aim at Boris Johnson, she shot to kill.
It was a 2015 debate on Greece vs Rome: Johnson, then mayor of London on the side of the Greeks, Beard the Romans. “The confession I have to make is that I was absolutely determined to win,” Beard admits, lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “So I overprepared.” The Cambridge professor went back and watched every video she could find of Johnson talking about classics, noting the errors in his blustering generalisations about the ancient world and areas where he had a tendency to contradict himself.
Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month
Content from our partners
