Where did the inexplicable pull begin?
Ancient Egypt did not interest my parents or any other
member of my family.
As I dig down through the layers to my childhood, I recall a
few touchstones:-
Seeing 'The Egyptian' movie
Reading 'Sinuhe, The Egyptian' – fiction
Reading Rider Haggard’s novel 'She' with its Egyptian
elements.
I started penning Egyptian stories at around fourteen and
attempted my first novel at sixteen.
I even made youthful attempts at painting ancient
Egypt.
I have haunted the museums of the world and made long and
searching visits to Egypt.
And I have written, written and written about Egypt in
novels and blogs.
So far I have penned an entire fiction series about a
renegade alternative Egyptologist by the name of Anson Hunter who explores unseen dangers
from the ancient past – The Smiting Texts, Hathor's Holocaust, The Ibis
Apocalypse, The Night of Anubis , Egypt Eyes, The Forbidden Glyphs
and The God Dig (Amazon Kindle).
As well as adult novels, I have written over a dozen novels for younger readers such as The Egyptian Princess Who Lost Her Scroll of the Dead (as Roy Pond).
What it is that attracts others to
Egypt, that compels people to queue up in their thousands to stand in the golden aura of
Tutankhamun’s treasures?
It's more than the lure of gold.
Ancient
Egypt is compelling, and in a book by Michael Rice and Sally
MacDonald, called 'Consuming Egypt', a research study on consumer attitudes to
ancient Egypt gives many fascinating insights.
Most
intriguing for me, as I have long suspected, they don't think of ancient Egypt
as a place or a time, but more of a bubble in time, a self-contained concept
that is endlessly satisfying to them.
In
this bubble float pyramids, Cleopatra, Tutankhamun and of course golden
treasures.
Consumers,
particularly younger ones, believe that tombs were built with tomb traps inside
purely as some kind of 'dare' to intruders to try to find the pharaoh's hidden treasure.
Rather like a computer game.
And yet… my obsession with Egypt is still a mystery that shows
little sign of abating.
I can never look up at a night sky without imagining
pharaoh’s Barque of Millions of Years sailing among the stars.
 |
| My favourite Egyptian piece. |
