Toby Wilkinson on the rediscovery of Ancient Egypt

In A World Beneath the Sands, the acclaimed Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson tells the riveting stories of the men and women whose obsession with Egypt's ancient civilisation drove them to uncover its secrets. Champollion, Carter and Carnarvon are here, but so too are their lesser-known contemporaries, such as the Prussian scholar Richard Lepsius and the Frenchman Auguste Mariette. Their work – and those of others like them – helped to enrich and transform our understanding of the Nile Valley and its people, and left a lasting impression on Egypt, too. Travellers and treasure-hunters, ethnographers and epigraphers, antiquarians and archaeologists: whatever their motives, whatever their methods, all understood that in pursuing Egyptology they were part of a greater endeavour – to reveal a lost world, buried for centuries beneath the sands.

Professor Toby Wilkinson has been hailed as ‘the foremost Egyptologist of his time’. An acknowledged expert on Egyptian history and civilisation, he has given lectures around the world and broadcast regularly on television and radio. He is the best-selling and prize-winning author of twelve books which have been translated into twelve languages. Toby is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a member of the international editorial board of the Journal of Egyptian History. He is currently a Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Lincoln and a Bye-Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge