www.egyptianlondon.co.uk

If you are wondering about the hieroglyphs at the top, they are read as (something like) Wepoot, and are the Middle Egyptian for...message or news.

Welcome to the January edition of the Egyptian London Newsletter.

Egypt in England - A Confirmed Sighting

The long-awaited (by me, anyway) publication of Egypt in England has been delayed by the preparation of maps, but is currently scheduled for “late summer” 2012, according to English Heritage.  The book’s page on Amazon has been updated to reflect this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Egypt-England-Chris-Elliott/dp/1848020880

Copy and paste the link above into your browser if you are curious.  The design may still change, but for now they seem to have accepted my suggestion for the cover image.  More information as it becomes available.

Winter in Egyptian London

Although the days are beginning to get longer, the weather in January is still pretty dreary, but spare a thought for the poor Victorians.  The name of Mathilde Blind may not ring many bells nowadays (congratulations if you recognised her as the first biographer of George Eliot), but in 1881, during the so-called Great Frost, she composed a poem on Cleopatra’s Needle.  Reading the second stanza is enough to make you shiver in sympathy

Now reared beside our Thames so wintry grey,
Where blocks of ice drift with the drifting stream,
Thou risest o'er the alien prospect! Say,
Yon dull, blear, rayless orb whose lurid gleam
Tinges the snow-draped ships and writhing steam,
Is this the sun which fired thine orient day?”

I hasten to add that conditions are currently nowhere near as bad, but it is worth remembering that there is a selection of Egyptian London tours which take place under cover.  Apart from the three British Museum tours, there is the Egyptian Londoners tour, which throws an interesting light on the National Portrait Gallery.  By pure coincidence, I recently acquired a copy of the biography of one of the people included in the tour.  Not only the first celebrity chef, who made and lost fortunes, but a great practical philanthropist, who probably saved thousands of lives.  Added to which, he has a claim to be the inventor of the potato chip.  What’s his connection to Egypt?  Come on the tour and find out.

More Egyptian Londoners

Three more potted biographies have been added to the web site.  One is in the great tradition of lawyers who are now better remembered for their extra-curricular activities, and the other two illustrate the crucial role that patronage played in the history of Egyptology (and much else besides.)  One was indirectly responsible for the creation of some of the greatest collections of Ancient Egyptian antiquities outside that country, and the other gave Howard Carter his start.  Read and enjoy.

Until next time,

Ankh Wedja Seneb,

Chris

Welcome to the February 2012 edition of the Egyptian London newsletter.

Go to Egyptian London

It was a fairly obvious thing to do, but I had somehow forgotten to add a link from the newsletters to the Egyptian London web site.  You should now be able to click on the logo at the head of this issue (and subsequent ones) to go to the web site.

Images of Obelisks

I've been adding some visual material (also known as pictures) to the web site, which you can see if you go to the tours and walks section and take a look at 'The Elderly Lady's Elephant' and the first of the British Museum tours.  The graphics have a pop-up feature so that you can see them properly without them dominating the pages.  I'll be adding more images when I can, but this isn't always straightforward.  Apart from needing to have an image which I have copyright on, permission to use, or which is in the public domain, a lot of interesting images are in contemporary sources.  Aside from preservation issues, the bindings on such books can make them impossible to scan, so I am working on ways of photographing them.

Egypt in England - more news

With the appointment of a new editor, or as they call them at English Heritage a 'Project Manager', Egypt in England is back on track again.  Copy editing has begun, and once that is complete, probably around mid-March, it will go to the designers.  This newsletter is going out fairly early in the month as I am likely to be busy turning round the text once I receive it back from the copy editor with her comments.  Nothing much to see yet, but as soon as there is anything I'll try to get a version of it put up on the web site.

Phridge of the Pharaohs

When visiting any museum worth its salt nowadays, you can, as the title of the documentary on the graffiti artist Banksy had it, "Exit Through The Gift Shop".  Not to be outdone, you can of course purchase the stylish Egyptian London fridge magnet on tours and walks.  For those who failed to take the opportunity at the time, or just fancy one anyway, they are now available by mail order from the web site.  (UK only at present.)  Still good value for money, even with postage, package and handling included.  The discreet link can be found at the bottom of the Tours and Walks menu.

More Egyptian Londoners

Only two more this month, but that is because we have come to the end of the 'A's, until any more are added.  Next month sees the start of Egyptian Londoners beginning with B.  How many can you think of?  They include the man I call 'The Oscar Wilde of Egyptology', who brought the only genuine Egyptian obelisk (other than Cleopatra's Needle) set up outdoors in England, and the man known as 'The Patagonian Sampson', who transported it for him.  This month, you have an artist and architect who made one of the earliest plans of the Valley of the Kings, and a Greek excavator, collector and dealer who put together collections of Egyptian antiquities which formed the basis of some of the finest museum collections in the world.  The link to Egyptian Londoners on the Egyptian London page has also been moved to make it easier to find.

Until next time,

Ankh Wedja Seneb

Chris

Phew!  It's been busy in Egyptian London since the last newsletter, and as a result this one has only just made it out in March.

Egypt in England

Part of the process of producing a book like Egypt in England is for it to go out to anonymous referees for their comments.  This had already happened, and the text had been revised to take account of their comments, so it was unexpected to find out recently that the text had gone out to a third, and very distinguished, referee.  How distinguished?  Let's just say that they are Emeritus Professor of Architectural History at a Russell Group university.  It was probably a good thing that I didn't know beforehand, but fortunately the response was very positive.  Naturally, there were some suggested changes and additions; after all, that's what referees are for.  They suggested adding some additional material on Egyptian style architecture in Classical times and some titles to the bibliography, making some amendments to the architectural glossary, and picked up some points where they disagreed with the sources that I had used.  All good stuff, and the book will undoubtedly be better for their comments.  The only trouble was, we still needed to keep to the same production schedule.

Cue some hasty last minute redrafting and copy editing.  The worst bit was that as soon as you added even one footnote, all the following ones had to be renumbered.  Manually.  And then checked to make sure that the number in the text still referred to the right footnote.  I'm pleased to be able to say that thanks to some great teamwork between myself and the copy editor, the changes were made and everything was still on track for a September publication date.  The copy edited text is now with the designers, and initial versions of the cover designs should be available in early April.  So why the additional referee?  Read on and find out...

Making an exhibition of yourself

During the year, English Heritage hold a number of exhibitions at the Wellington Arch, better known as Marble Arch, and Egypt in England was being considered for one of them.  Hence the final 'quality control' check with the additional referee.  I'm delighted to be able to say that the exhibition has now been confirmed, probably for some time in November.  If you aren't familiar with the Wellington Arch, copy and paste the link below into your browser for some atmospheric photos.

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/wellington-arch/#Right

Walk the Walk, Talk the Talk

I'm also delighted to be able to say that I will be doing an Egyptian London walk for the award winning London Walks company later in the year, on Sunday 7th October at 10:45.  My association with them goes right back to 2004, and if you haven't been on one of their walks yet, do check out their web site at

http://www.walks.com/

Does Cleopatra's Needle have a post code?

During the process of copy editing Egypt in England, it was decided that the post codes for all the locations needed to be included.  For some locations, this was no problem, but it left me in the weird situation of trying to find out if Cleopatra's Needle had a post code, and if so what it was.  It wasn't just the Needle, either.  What about the Wellington Monument, or the Valve House at Widdop Reservoir?  It turns out that to have a post code, you have to have an address that the Post Office will deliver mail to, so the Needle doesn't qualify.  If it did, however, it would be WC2N 2PB, which is the post code of the very pleasant café immediately opposite.

More Egyptian Londoners

This month, fresh on the web site, the Bs, beginning with the younger brother of the founder of the Boy Scouts, the man who made the London Underground (and every other metro in the world) dip between stations, and the man I call 'The Oscar Wilde of Egyptology'.  Enjoy.

It's Egyptian, Jim, but not as we know it

If, like me, one of the highlights of your year is the arrival of the padded envelope that brings the latest copy of the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, keep an eye out for the next issue.  The editors have just accepted a paper of mine.  I toyed with the catchy title of 'Nineteenth Century Compositions in Egyptian Hieroglyphs', but decided instead to go for 'It's Egyptian Jim, but not as we know it'.  The paper is a fairly detailed and technical look at the hieroglyphic inscriptions on several of the buildings in Egypt in England, which were original compositions, rather than genuine Ancient Egyptian texts.  I'm glad to be able to report that academics, including the anonymous peer referee, do have a sense of humour, and that it looks like it is going in title and all.

Until next time,

Ankh Wedja Seneb,

Chris