Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt Review

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(More customer reviews)Joyce Ann Tyldesley is a lecturer of Egyptology at Liverpool University and the author of several books on ancient Egypt. She writes that most authors have written about Cleopatra either from a Roman perspective or from a popular culture perspective. She claims that most Egyptologists consider Cleopatra part of the 300 year Ptolemaic Empire, an Empire that is something of a footnote to true Egyptian history. Of course, Cleopatra VII is best known for her role in the Roman political battles between Julius Caesar and Pompey, and later between Octavian and Mark Antony.
Tyldesley is a terrific story teller and as Shakespeare and Elizabeth Taylor and a host of others have proven, Cleopatra's story is full of twists and turns and many wonders. Tyldesley fills her book with interesting Egyptian details, putting her a bit more firmly into ancient traditions. She argues against suicide by asp bite, for example, based on an ancient tradition of death by poisonous ointments.
By the end of the book, though, I didn't really see a Cleopatra very different from the one I found in Cleopatra by Michael Grant, a book I greatly admire. After all, almost all we know about Cleopatra was written by Roman authors, focused on the great battles over Egyptian riches and Imperial power. Moreover, Egypt itself had been ruled from time to time over 700 years by Libyans, Nubians and Persians before the arrival of Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. Finally, as Helen Brown points out in her review quoted in full in the first Comment: "After defeating the last queen of Egypt, Julius Caesar's adopted son was determined to destroy her reputation. He smashed the images made to glorify her and ensured his pocket historians cast her as a greedy, incestuous, adulterous whore who used her foreign, feminine wiles to emasculate the Roman Empire."
This is a terrific story, very well told by an excellent historian. But don't look for any new and ground breaking insights into Cleopatra's fascinating life.
Robert C. Ross 2008


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Cleopatra to Christ (Jesus was the Great Grandson of Cleopatra) / Scota, Egyptian Queen of the Scots (Ireland and Scotland were founded by an Egyptian Queen) Review

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(More customer reviews)I have read almost all of the author's books and I find that he just might have a shred of truth in this one
and also a lot of his own perceptions without any firm basis. I have an idea there might be more fiction
than facts. Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls

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Book One: A Reconstruction of Jesus' roots and family history. The Bible says that the infant Jesus was visited by the Magi of the East, and that he was educated in Egypt. Seeming to be of royal blood, he was crowned King of the Jews. The inference from these sparse facts is that Jesus was probably of both Egyptian and Persian royal blood, but that he was exiled to Judaea in about 4 AD. In fact, there was a royal family in the early first century AD that fits all the requirements to produce this scion, though only known about for hundreds of years. Scota: Egyptian Queen of the Scots: Six hundred years ago, Walter Bower set out to record the known history of the Irish and Scottish people. Drawing on records from the first millennium AD, the astounding account he wrote maintained that the Irish and Scottish people were descended from Queen Scota, who was an Egyptian princess. It is from Scota and her husband Gaythelos that the names for the Scottish and Gaelic people were derived. It has generally been assumed that this account is mythological; however, Ellis has amassed sufficient evidence to demonstrate that it is true history, and that the Irish and Scots people were descended from a daughter of Pharaoh Akhenaton. Includes 12-page color section.

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Mara, Daughter of the Nile (Puffin Story Books) Review

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(More customer reviews)Mara is a wonderful heroine for young girls. Set in the time of Hatshepsut, Pharoah of Egypt, this small novel brings to life a distant era with remarkable clarity. McGraw has crafted her vision of the period around an exciting palace intrigue. The character of Mara, a young slave girl, is an excellent example for young women and it is remarkable to find in a book that was written in the 1950s. If you know a young woman of 9 to 14, give her this book.
This is one of the best books that I have ever read - how fortunate that it is still in print after all these years! I first encountered this excellent novel in 1961. I read it at least 20 times. I was too poor to purchase, so I copied the book out in about 10 school scribblers. True! When my daughter was 10, I bought a copy for her and another for myself.
McGraw's interpretation of the era can easily be faulted, but her sense of "Egypt" cannot. This book sent me on an investigative journey into the subject of Egyptology that has been a distinct pleasure all my life. I highly recommend this wonderful tale.

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The adventures of an ingenious Egyptian slave girl who undertakes a dangerous assignment as a spy in the royal palace of Thebes, in the days when Queen Hatshepsut ruled.

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The Intrepid Wanderer's Guide to Ancient Egyptian Goddesses Review

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(More customer reviews)Great book for those who like ancient Egypt and mythical characters. In this case: goddesses and cohorts. The book is loaded with information beyond the usual surface coverage. Scholarly but popular, witty. Nice mix. Goddesses are each profiled in "biographies". Maps, very good illustrations, photographs, etc. Attention to detail makes this book stand out, I'd say. Myths are covered, where the temples were found, how each goddess became important, their highs, their lows. Isis, Hathor, Nut, Wadjet, all the usual suspects. I really liked the survey of cult towns. Very unique. There should've been an index, though. An index would've been helpful because the author covers a lot of ground. But it's more an alphabetical reference guide with lots of fascinating extras, so not a huge quibble. A welcome addition to my library of the ancient world and mythology. Quite recommended.

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